


all of these stories don't mean anything, when you've got no one to tell them to, it's true, that i was made for you

by endofdaysforme



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, F/M, I can't write like I used to bleh, Multi, also please don't expect frequent updates, there's so many characters I can't tag them all omg, there's so many relationships but it is a grey's anatomy au! wouldn't be one without them!, uhh I hope you like it!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:40:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 48,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22551913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endofdaysforme/pseuds/endofdaysforme
Summary: “this is highly unprofessional!” cheryl all but screeches, quickly checking up and down the staircase once more for any eavesdroppers as toni frowns once and purses her lips.“really? i don’t think so…” toni murmurs, her eyes roaming over cheryl’s body once more with this look of almost awe mixed with pure confidence that has cheryl’s eyes narrowing in anger because she knows that look, she saw that look last night-“stop looking at me like that!”“like what?!”“like we’ve had sex before!”--cheryl blossom has everything going for her: a career that's flourishing, friends that love and care for her (even if they tease her mercilessly), and a place in the best surgical program on the east coast designed to make sure she's nothing but the best.but when a drunken mistake leads to cheryl realizing she's just slept with her new boss, cheryl has to try her best to stop everything from crashing around her...while also trying her absolute best not to fall in love with said new boss.if she thought medical school was hard, she's in for the shock of her life...--aka...a grey's anatomy au.-on temporary hiatus.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge (very minor), Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, Reggie Mantle/Josie McCoy, Veronica Lodge/Reggie Mantle
Comments: 149
Kudos: 535





	1. stop looking at me like that!

**Author's Note:**

> HALLOOOOOO. IT'S BEEN A WHILE.
> 
> lemme explain.
> 
> writing is hard. is very tough. verrrry tough. BUT I am doing my best anddddd I got this idea and I can't let it go and now I just wanna write ALLLLL the storylines for this idea so...HERE I AM.
> 
> a few notes before we start, however:
> 
> 1) there will be some storylines from grey's anatomy used in this, but there will also be some original shit as well. 
> 
> 2) don't think of choni as meredith/derek, cause...they're not. they're choni and they have their own dynamic, as will ever other ship in this fic. it's more of a grey's anatomy INSPIRED fic than a carbon copy of it. 
> 
> 3) updates are gonna be sooooo fucking slow. like, SLOW. I'm talking once every two/three weeks, maybe even more. I've been working a lot and I have a life and what not. I am really sorry because I know I used to be a machine that chugged out two chapters a week but then I got into a motorbike accident and my body got fifty shades of fucked up and it hurts to stay at a computer in one position typing for longer than an hour or so, and also...writing is hard! my brain isn't in it as much as it used to be because ya know...life! but still I say... :( :( forgive meeeeee plssssss
> 
> 4) I hope you guys enjoy this fic, I am planning on having this be my long term multi-chap fic, but I'll try my absolute BEST to slug out some one shots during it's run! ALSO ALSO, maybe some other multi-chap fics? I don't know, I'll keep you guys updated on my twitter (@endofdaysforme) but all I know is I'm gonna TRY. because I love writing and I love entertaining you guys <3
> 
> anyway, without further ado, here's the first chapter of this lovely lil fic I been working real hard on, leave a comment letting me know what ya think! bye now!

_oh god, cheryl, what did you do?_

a harsh groan emanates from deep in her throat almost on instinct, her entire body throbbing painfully but pleasurably as the vague memories within her mind slowly begin to string together to give her a cohesive story of the previous night.

a bar. alcohol… _a lot_ of alcohol…a lot of dancing, too…a cute girl, sleeping with said cute girl, sex… _great_ sex-

_oh god._

she lifts her head up from the pillow it’s currently buried into, her hair falling all over her face and her head pounding as she blinks rapidly and notices something a little jarring through the curtain of red hair splayed over her eyes and obscuring her vision.

there’s no red walls. no lacy curtains, nothing that she’s used to waking up to…just a beige wall and a full glass window that shows the beautiful trees of fox forest and the current of sweetwater river, a room that looks much fancier than hers…

she’s not in her own bedroom. 

cheryl groans again, her mind racing as she quickly rubs the sleep from her eyes, forgetting the fact that she’s more than likely still got makeup on from last night because her mind is slowly coming to terms with the fact that the blankets are definitely hitting her bare skin underneath.

she’s naked. in a bed that isn’t her own.

_you went home with her?!_

she can practically hear her cousin betty and her best friend veronica chastising her in her mind for this before the sound of a low whine beside her causes her to freeze in fear and panic.

cheryl feels a warm arm slide off from around her waist, an arm she didn’t even realize was there in her panic over her current situation before the bed creaks loudly, the weight beside her shifting and causing her to lick her dry lips as her heart begins racing. she hears another soft groan before she’s making a split second decision.

she needs to get the fuck out of here.

cheryl doesn’t give the girl a chance to say anything, just pushes herself up into a seated position and grabs the blanket around her waist to cover herself up before she’s jumping out of the bed and quickly glancing around anxiously in an attempt to find the dress she had on last night. 

“oh hey, you’re up…good morning.” she hears a raspy voice say behind her with a soft chuckle, causing her to wince as the memories of the night before flood her mind.

_“how about we go back to my place and enjoy this night far away from prying eyes?”_

she can’t believe that stupid pick up line worked on her, but she was drunk and lonely, sue her. besides, it’s not like they’ll see each other ever again, it’s fine, everything’s fine-

_don’t look at her, cheryl, just get dressed, get home and get cleaned up!_

cheryl simply hums under her breath in response, locates her purse and pushes herself up off the bed to grab it. she fishes through it, fingers closing over that little rectangle, and she lights her phone up quickly, her heart dropping as soon as she sees the time.

fuck…fuck her shift starts in an hour-

“uh…i have to go.” cheryl croaks out, shoving her phone back into her purse and quickly scanning the floor to find her red dress in the corner. she rushes over and picks it up off the floor all while still holding her blanket up around her body, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment as she quickly scans the area outside the glass window to check that no one’s around.

this girl lives on the outskirts of sweetwater river so she’s definitely isolated but cheryl’s not about to be exposed to some loser out there peeking for a nip slip…god, she doesn’t even know who this girl is and she just followed her home?

what the hell was she thinking, getting so drunk last night that she slept with some stranger and went home with them? 

“so quick? i thought we could grab a cup of coffee-.”

“i can’t, i have to get to work, i’m sorry.” cheryl says quickly, dropping the blankets and sliding her dress on as swiftly as possible as the girl behind her lets out what sounds like a sigh of disappointment. 

“oh…can i at least get your number? i’m new to town and wouldn’t mind a friend showing me around, especially one as pretty as you.” the girl asks with a sly chuckle, causing cheryl’s heart to clench as she finally spins around and comes face to face with her one night stand.

_oh, shit…_

the girl’s hair is haphazard, brown with pink highlights throughout and a mess of curls that falls over her shoulders and down her bare back while also just covering her bare chest that cheryl tries her absolute fucking best not to look at as she swallows the lump in her throat and takes in dark, clear skin without a single blemish and full lips, big, bright brown eyes, fuck…

even with the crazy hair and streaky makeup, this girl is _beautiful._

she’s smiling, full plump lips upturned and one perfectly plucked eyebrow raised as cheryl clears her throat and lets out a shaky breath.

“listen, uh…umm…” cheryl trails off, the girl’s name forgotten in the depths of her hungover mind and making her flush with embarrassment as the girl scoffs and simply shakes her head in disbelief.

“…toni.” she deadpans.

“toni! right…um, last night was fun, but…we don’t need to do that. the whole ‘let’s get coffee’ thing that just ends up being awkward, so…it was fun, but let’s leave it at that.” cheryl says simply, offering toni a smile and watching as she chuckles before she sinks back down onto her pillows with a nonchalant shrug.

“sure, cheryl. whatever you want. can i at least give you a ride back to the bar or to work?” she says with a smirk, resting her hands behind her head and watching as cheryl zips up her dress and bends down to grab her shoes so she can get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible while also vehemently shaking her head.

she is so not getting roped into her charms, even if her eyes sparkle and she has a smile that makes cheryl's entire body melt like goo-

“no! no, it’s uh…it’s fine, i’ll order an uber. um…thanks, again, and…nice to meet you.” cheryl says awkwardly, nodding once before she’s rushing straight to the door and leaving before toni can even get out-

“nice to meet you too!” 

—

the moment cheryl blossom pushes open the door to the intern’s locker room, about twenty heads shoot up to look at her in surprise, some of them scoffing in disbelief, some of them rolling their eyes like they’ve seen this a hundred times before, and some of them-

“dude, you’re late! rounds start in five minutes!” veronica lodge hisses under her breath as soon as she reaches cheryl, who rushes right past her with a heavy sigh to get to her locker while she throws her hair up into a high ponytail, her brain still throbbing, but her body at least feeling a little cleaner and better after a quick hot shower back at her apartment. betty cooper’s eyes light up from worried to relief the second she sees her, and cheryl simply gives her a small, reassuring smile before she’s looking to veronica sternly. 

“i know, veronica, i’m fully aware!” cheryl hisses through her teeth, throwing her locker door open and reaching into it for her scrubs with one hand while she unbuttons her jeans with the other. 

“better hope doctor chipping doesn’t walk through that door in the next five seconds!” reggie mantle sing songs with a grin from where he’s tightening his shoes on the bench behind them. cheryl simply throws him a scathing glare as she sheds her jeans quickly, ignoring the way reggie's eyes roam over her long legs appreciatively.

_fucking jerk..._

“lay off, reggie.” archie andrews mutters under his breath, throwing cheryl a soft smile as he loops his stethoscope over his neck and shuts his locker door before he’s making his way to the entrance to the locker room without a backward glance, clearly avoiding looking at cheryl in her current de-clothed state. 

“there’s archie with his puppy dog eyes again…” veronica murmurs into cheryl’s ear as soon as she takes her shirt off and shoves it into her locker with a roll of her eyes.

“shut up, ronnie, he knows i don’t… _swing_ his way.” cheryl grumbles, quickly grabbing her blue scrubs and putting them on, wincing only slightly at the scratchy material of it as she tries her best _not_ to think of that particularly awkward conversation with archie last week when he asked her out on a date...

“doesn’t mean he can’t have a crush, maybe he’s hoping _he_ can convince you to swing his way.” veronica says with a wicked grin, taking a chunk from her apple as betty rolls her eyes and takes a quick swipe at veronica’s arm. 

“leave her alone, veronica!”

“oh come on, you gotta admit it’s funny! the fact that andrews seriously thinks he could try and get cheryl to switch sexualities or something, he can’t possibly be hiding a six pack under there-.”

“that’s not what he’s doing! he was incredibly respectful and kind, he just…has a crush, it’ll go away! can we stop talking about him now?” cheryl demands, rolling her eyes as veronica giggles while betty sighs and shakes her head at their best friend’s antics. 

“alright, interns! rise and shine, time for rounds! move it!” a loud voice echoes from the entrance, prompting cheryl to stare at veronica with wide eyes in panic before she’s grabbing her stethoscope, looping it over her neck and grabbing her labcoat quickly and rushing towards the entrance.

doctor rupert chipping’s eyes take in the twenty or so interns around him with disdain before they narrow in disappointment as he stares at cheryl with her haphazard scrubs and lab coat, as well as the guilty expression on her face that immediately indicates-

“late again, doctor blossom?” he says in a low voice, crossing his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow as cheryl clears her throat and bows her head in shame.

“i…i’m sorry, doctor chipping-.”

“not a problem! just means you can do scut for the day!” he says cheerily with a grin, and cheryl’s heart sinks as she fights back a groan and simply nods once.

great…scut means not getting to even see the inside of an operating room today, this shift is gonna be completely unbearable…

“yes, sir.”

“ohhh, you fucked up so bad, i was in till late last night, they brought in a woman with a stemi, could be surgical!” veronica laughs behind her under her breath as betty bites back a smile and shrugs.

“a simple heart attack doesn’t mean surgical, veronica, and why the hell were you here so late anyway?” she murmurs, sighing as veronica scoffs under her breath.

"how the hell else do you think we're gonna get in on surgeries, bettykins? you need to learn how to play the game, my sweet." veronica says in a rushed whisper with a grin as doctor chipping assigns each intern a job.

“alright, after your rounds are done, you’ll be helping out the attendings with their cases! mantle, you’re with doctor golightly for the day, andrews…doctor grande needs an intern with him for a patient with a broken tibia and collarbone after a fall from a second story window, stay focused and don’t piss him off! lodge, you’re with doctor lopez and cooper…cooper, cooper, cooper…ah! with doctor desantos, meet him on the third floor.” doctor chipping says with a smile, handing each of them charts as they nod and make their way out of the locker room. veronica gives cheryl a grin while betty gives her a reassuring smile before they’re exiting with a quick ‘yes, sir’. 

as soon as they’re all gone, doctor chipping turns his attention to cheryl with a grin.

“alright, i need you to get these to the head of oncology first before i need you to take these down to the lab. as soon as they page you with the results, take them straight down to doctor antoinette topaz in the pediatrics ward with haste. it’s her first day at riverdale general hospital as the head of peds, she needs to be brought up to date with our patients and i’d like for her to not think our interns are incapable…especially _my_ interns.” doctor chipping says quickly, shoving five charts into cheryl’s hands as she grunts and takes them all without a complaint.

“right away, doctor chipping.” she murmurs, rushing straight for the door to this done and dusted before he can say anything else-

“and doctor blossom?” doctor chipping calls out, prompting cheryl to turn around as he looks at her with a smug grin and suddenly pulls his wallet out of his pocket before stepping toward her.

“get me a coffee. long black, two sugars.” he says simply, pulling five bucks from his wallet and placing it into the pocket of her lab coat. cheryl feels her face flush with embarrassment as she adjusts the charts in her arms.

“sir-.”

“don’t be late next time. it’s your fifth time in the last month, don’t give me a reason to kick you out of the program.” he says firmly, and with that, he walks out, leaving a flustered cheryl behind as he does.

_four years of medical school for **this?** fuck my fucking life…_

she can’t believe she worked her ass off at school and in college to end up here…running around doing labs and getting her goddamn boss coffee for being less than ten minutes late? this is ridiculous…she’s here to be a goddamn surgeon, not a barista…and yes, she’s been late a couple of times, but only by a couple of minutes, this is the first time she’s ever shown up late over ten minutes, what the hell is his problem? they start their shifts at five am, they're all bound to be a little late sometimes, reggie has shown up late more times than she can count and he doesn't get reprimanded as often as she does...

_of course I get stuck with the sexist pig for a resident..._

god, she’s praying that stemi patient doesn’t end up needing surgery, she’ll never hear the end of it from veronica if she ends up in surgery while cheryl’s running around doing notes and lab results for the attendings…and she lives with her too, she’ll have to suffer it at home too, fuck…

well, at least she’ll have betty to defend her.

she’s been a surgical intern at riverdale general hospital along with her cousin betty and best friend veronica for over eight months now, and each day here has only proven to her more and more that she made the right choice to study medicine. helping save lives is perhaps the most gratifying thing cheryl’s ever experienced, but its days like this where she starts to wonder if it actually was worth it at all…

but then again…she was late, and doctor chipping is known for being a hardass. she so should not have gone to that goddamn bar last night, but yesterday was a rough day and she needed a drink, sue her. she lost a patient, an old man with a wife of over fifty years that was now a widow, and cheryl needed all the booze she could get her hands on to wipe out the sound of his wife crying and screaming at the top of her lungs as doctor desantos told her that he had died on the table while they tried to remove his frontal lobe tumor…

hearing her pain was punishment enough, wasn’t it? 

she just shouldn't have left with that woman...toni, or whatever. she should've gone straight home so betty could give her a glass of water and some tylenol like always before dragging her to work...

her head is still pounding, but again, she remembers her patient from yesterday...and his wife...

doctor jones’s first words to them on their first day at the hospital rings in cheryl’s ear as she closes her eyes and tries her best to just take a deep breath…

_“we can’t save everyone. we can try our goddamn hardest, but we can’t save everyone…you’ll do well to remember that.”_

well, she might not be cutting patients open and fixing what’s on the inside for today, but she’s at least helping discover what’s wrong in the first place…that’s gotta count for something, right?

_…god, that stemi patient better not be surgical._

—

“blossom!” 

cheryl jumps up from the chair in the waiting room and fights back a yawn as she runs straight to the pathologist, who hands her a form with a deep sigh and looks up at her impatiently.

“doctor antoinette topaz’s results for patient twenty five eighteen. might wanna get them to her quickly, she’s called three times already to get a rush for the results…can tell she’s gonna be a pain in the ass.” he grumbles, and cheryl snatches the forms from his hands and takes a quick glance at them, her heart dropping when she sees the results…

high white cell count…way too high, oh no…

“on it, thank you!” she yells out before she’s rushing straight to the elevators, dodging other doctors and visitors as she jumps into the elevator and slams her finger onto level three.

maybe if she shows initiative with this new peds doctor, she’ll get on her good side and might be able to get in on some surgeries…doctor chipping is just chief resident, the attendings go over his head by miles, she’ll finally stop getting bullied by him all the damn time…she gets she was late, of course she does but that doesn’t mean she should be punished for it. not when reggie has done it way more times than she has.

as soon as the doors pull open, cheryl power walks straight towards reception with a grin, hoping this doctor topaz isn’t a hardass and that she can impress her and get on her service so doctor chipping can’t keep punishing her for showing up a little late by making her do fucking scut and getting him coffee for god’s sake-

“hey! is doctor topaz around? i’ve got her lab results for patient twenty five eighteen.” cheryl says breathlessly, watching as the reception nurse sighs and waves off down the hallway.

“she’s down there somewhere consulting with the chief.” she rasps out, eyes not even leaving her computer screen, and cheryl simply frowns before she’s making her way down the hallway, a massive grin on her face at the fact that she’s about to get in on a case for sure before she turns the corner and-

her heart absolutely _drops._

_no…no, no, no, no fucking way…_

“no…no, no, this isn’t happening…”

the girl…the girl from this morning, talking to the chief, to doctor jones, no, this _cannot_ be happening, her eyes are deceiving her-

_are you stupid?! pink hair is hard to miss!_

cheryl’s frozen, watching on in shock as toni, or well, _doctor topaz_ shakes the chief’s hand with a wide grin, bowing her head to him once before her eyes move past him-

and land on cheryl.

the clear shock in her eyes is obvious, her whole body doing a double take and the grin quickly leaving her face, and cheryl clears her throat before her eyes are moving to the door beside her-

_stairs, get to the stairs-_

cheryl pushes through the door and is about to climb straight up the stairs as far away from this goddamn floor as possible, as far away from this _hospital_ as possible, she cannot believe this is happening, her one night stand?! _here!?_ oh god-

“wait! cheryl!” 

she…she slept with an _attending!?_ the new head of peds, the new fucking _boss_ of her?! she’s so fucking screwed, how could this happen, how could she do this, they said her name was 'antoinette' not-

“hey, would you stop!?” 

strong fingers grip her elbow and force her to a stop as cheryl spins around with a whimper of panic and a shake of her head, the chart in her hand almost falling as she yanks her arm out of toni’s grip frantically. 

“don’t! you can’t do that!” she cries out, taking a few steps higher to get away from her, and toni frowns before she lets out a deep sigh and suddenly leans against the railing of the stairs with a small smile, brown eyes observing cheryl slowly without an inch of panic over the situation they’ve landed themselves in.

“why?”

“because you can’t!” cheryl wrings her hands nervously, chewing on her bottom lip as she tries to make her way down the stairs again, but toni blocks her off by placing her hand on the railing so her arm is in the way of cheryl’s path.

“okay! but why?!” toni exclaims, chuckling slightly as cheryl glares at her angrily at the fact that she’s fucking laughing while cheryl’s entire career is smoking up in flames-

“because! you just can’t!” she growls, shoving the pink haired girl back by her shoulder and making her way down the stairs as far away from this girl as she can get.

“cheryl, wait-.” toni sighs, gripping her forearm this time, and cheryl turns to look at her with tears in her eyes, her panic getting the better of her completely as she shoves her back slightly once more.

_she’s gonna say something and i’m gonna get kicked out of the fucking program, nice fucking job, cheryl-_

four years of medical school, all for nothing, god, she's only twenty six and her career is over already-

“you’re…you’re an attending, you’re…you’re my boss!” cheryl says shakily, trying her best not to break down in tears as toni raises an eyebrow at her and nods once in acknowledgement.

“okay…and?” she says simply.

“and?! are you kidding me?! oh god, i’m gonna get kicked out-.”

“you’re not gonna get kicked out, cheryl! we didn’t know each other when we slept together, it’s not a big deal-.”

“not so loud!” cheryl hisses, clapping a hand over toni’s mouth and looking up and down the staircase to make sure no one’s overhearing them with her heart thundering in her ribcage. toni giggles against her hand before her warm fingers enclose around cheryl’s wrist and lower it slowly, this spark igniting in cheryl as she looks at the girl before her in disbelief and anger that she’s not taking any of this seriously.

“cheryl…you’re not gonna get kicked out. i’m not gonna say anything.” toni says softly, smiling at cheryl as the girl watches her in confusion and once again, disbelief.

“i…you’re not?” she says in shock, prompting toni to chuckle as she grins widely and looks cheryl up and down once again with that goddamn smile of hers…

“well…if you go out to dinner with me, i won’t.” she says cheekily, staring at cheryl happily. cheryl’s eyes widen, her shock only growing more and more with each passing moment.

did she seriously just say that? she's trying to blackmail her? what the fuck is going on right now?

“i…you’re joking, right?”

“mmm, i don’t joke. well, i do, but not about or to pretty girls i want to take on a date.” toni says with an even wider grin, her fingers tightening on cheryl’s wrist before the redhead quickly pulls her hand out of toni’s grasp in defiance.

“doctor topaz!”

“doctor topaz?! this morning it was ‘toni’!” toni exclaims with a shake of her head and another smirk, and cheryl feels rage flood her that this… _woman_ is acting like this is all one big joke.

she slept with her boss. her fucking _boss._ if this gets out to anyone else, if the higher ups or even her colleagues find out…

“this is highly unprofessional!” cheryl all but screeches, quickly checking up and down the staircase once more for any eavesdroppers as toni frowns once and purses her lips.

“really? i don’t think so…” toni murmurs, her eyes roaming over cheryl’s body once more with this look of almost awe mixed with pure confidence that has cheryl’s eyes narrowing in anger because she _knows_ that look, she _saw_ that look last night, it’s how she ended up where she fucking is right now-

“stop looking at me like that!” she snaps at toni.

“like what?!”

“like we’ve had sex before!” cheryl growls, shoving the chart she came here to give toni in the first place into her hands and making her way down the stairs quickly once more, sighing in relief when toni doesn’t make a move to stop her again and simply watches her walk away.

“well we have!” toni says with a laugh, and at the sound of it, something inside cheryl just _snaps._

there’s nothing funny about this situation, and the fact that she’s laughing…

“doctor topaz! this is highly inappropriate! did you ever think of that?!” cheryl yells without a care of anyone hearing, glaring back at her and watching as toni frowns deeply, not an ounce of humor in her eyes before she throws the door open and runs inside the hospital once more, only stopping at the door to yell-

“by the way, your guy has chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and by the look of his white cell count, it’s aggressive!” 

and with that, she shuts the door, leaving a confused and devastated toni topaz behind.

—

“girl, what is going on with you? you look like someone took away a glioblastoma surgery from you.” doctor josie mccoy, one of the residents in her program says as she takes a bite of her salad with a chuckle, watching as cheryl takes a sip of her juice with a less than enthusiastic grunt while bodies continue to mill about the cafeteria.

“nothing.” she grumbles, her mind still on one thing and one thing only.

toni topaz.

she can’t believe her fucking luck. how is it possible, that she sleeps with someone last night and that someone turns out to be her new boss? it just doesn’t _happen_ and yet, of course, it’s happened to her.

she knows she’s fucking cursed but at this point, she might as well hang cloves of garlic in a necklace around her shoulders or hire a witch doctor to cleanse her…

josie is still staring at her with amusement just as veronica falls into the seat beside her with a wide grin on her face, and she leans into cheryl to whisper into her ear-

“that stemi patient? a tear in her coronary artery, we’re scrubbing in this afternoon!” she says gleefully as she drops her tray of food in front of her smugly, prompting cheryl to collapse into her seat with a groan of despair as betty sighs and falls into the seat to her left now. 

“doctor desantos is a hardass.” she says in a low voice, glancing around the cafeteria quickly to make sure doctor desantos isn’t around or spying on her before she’s reaching for the small bag of chips on her tray.

“he’s a neurosurgeon, he has to be, without the brain, we’ve got nothing!” josie sing songs, grinning as veronica pokes cheryl’s arm with her fork with a loud laugh and a wicked grin.

“yeah, maybe we should check cheryl’s to see if there’s anything in there.” she teases, poking her with her fork again as josie’s laugh grows louder.

“fuck off, veronica.” cheryl growls, slapping her hand away as betty rolls her eyes and also slaps veronica’s arm.

“leave her alone, v.”

“ah, blossom family attack! let me live, i'm just wondering why you were so late today-.”

“doctor blossom!” cheryl jumps in surprise at the sound of her name being barked at her and looks up to see doctor chipping making his way over to them with a grin on his face as she jumps out of her seat so quickly, her chair collapses to the floor, prompting veronica to belch with laughter.

“y-yes, sir?” 

“for the life of me, i cannot understand why, but doctor topaz has requested your service, get down to peds as soon as possible. she has a case that followed her here from washington, so make a good impression.” doctor chipping says firmly, already turning to walk away as cheryl freezes in shock and stares at his departing figure with horror.

doctor…doctor topaz…cheryl on her service…

_her service…_

“wait, doctor chipping!” cheryl tears off after him, almost tripping over her chair and ignoring veronica’s snort of laughter once more as she catches up to doctor chipping quickly.

“doctor chipping, i c-can’t work with doctor topaz-.”

“and why is that, blossom?” he says with a sigh, turning to look at her in exasperation as cheryl licks her lips and shakes her head.

there’s no fucking way she’s telling him.

“i…i h-have so many charts to do and-.”

“and doctor topaz is an attending and requires your service, so palm it off to another intern! and be quick about it!” doctor chipping says loudly before he’s walking away before she can stop him, tears threatening to spill over, god, she _cannot_ work under toni-

“move your ass, blossom!” doctor chipping shouts once he’s at the door that leads to the cafeteria, kicking it open as cheryl groans and runs straight back to her table to see veronica still laughing at her.

the end of this day could not come quick enough…

“what’s going on?” betty asks with a frown of concern as soon as cheryl comes rushing into her view. 

“new head of peds wants me on her service.” cheryl gets out quickly, gathering her things and taking a final bite of her food as veronica chuckles and looks at her with a raised eyebrow and a wicked grin.

“is she cute?” 

cheryl damn near chokes on her own saliva and simply shakes her head with a whimper before she’s rushing out of the cafeteria and heading straight for the peds floor, ignoring veronica’s catcalling and josie’s chastisement of her.

trust veronica to ask something like that, god, cheryl really hates her sometimes…

she can’t believe she’s essentially being forced into working with toni right now, but it’s not like she has much of a choice. toni is an attending, and cheryl’s an intern. she has no say in anything, she just…has to follow orders.

god, how can toni even _be_ an attending? she doesn’t look that much older than cheryl, how is it possible for her to be years ahead of her career wise? 

_why do you care, cheryl?_

she doesn’t…yeah, she doesn’t, not at all, she’s just gonna keep her head down, do the work toni tells her to do and hope that toni will request her service for today and today only-

she’s barely made it through the double doors of the pediatric wing when she sees a flash of pink hair in her periphery, and she gasps and turns her head so quickly, her neck immediately flares with pain from the movement.

“ah, doctor blossom…nice of you to join us.” toni says with a fond smile, looking as if their conversation in the stairwell earlier today never happened as she motions for cheryl to follow her down the hallway. cheryl watches her walk away for a total of three seconds before she’s scurrying after her with a clear of her throat, her lab coat flapping with the force of her feet moving.

“you…requested my service?” she says stiffly, already regretting her decision to leave the cafeteria at all as toni chuckles and slows her steps down so cheryl can fall in line with her. 

“i did…you got the lab results, it’s only fair you get in on this case.” toni says with a sigh, stopping outside of a closed off private room and nodding towards the window beside the door, which cheryl looks through to see-

a kid…barely even eight years old, with sunken, dark eyes and a haunted look in them, but this smile on his face as he looks to an older woman who cheryl can only presume is his mother beside him, her eyes puffy and red and filled with despair…

“that’s…that’s a child.” cheryl manages to croak out, this worry gripping her as toni hums softly and simply nods once, her eyes not moving from the child in the window and god, she looks so upset and pained right now…

“yes, it is. i’m the head of pediatric care, doctor blossom. my job involves children. sick children.” toni says firmly, watching cheryl intently as she continues to stare at the child on the bed before her eyes in shock.

toni said she got his lab results earlier…oh god…oh god, oh god-

“i…he has chronic lymphocytic leukemia…” cheryl gasps out, looking at toni through a blurred mess of tears and watching as toni’s eyes grow heavy before she nods slowly with another shaky exhale.

“he does. he’s been with me for over two years now, came with me from washington…we've been trying to treat it, but every time we think it's gone...it just comes back. and this time...this time i don't think we can help him.” she whispers, looking through the window morosely as cheryl swallows the lump quickly building in her throat over just how cruel she was earlier today.

she shouted his diagnosis at toni as if it was nothing, as if…as if _dying_ isn’t something altogether terrible as an adult itself, even worse for a child…

“oh my god…i…i said it so callously-.” cheryl gasps out, her tears finally spilling over before she feels a hand grip her shoulder gently, this panic gripping her for no reason-

“cheryl, it’s okay-.”

“don’t do that!” she cries, shrugging out of toni’s grip with a choked out sob as the attending looks at her in surprise. 

“do what?”

“comfort me! act like all of this is okay, it’s not okay! why would you request me on your service when we were just in bed together this morning!?” cheryl hisses, unable to contain herself as toni’s eyes suddenly grow hard right before her very eyes.

before cheryl can protest, toni’s gripping her bicep and leading her down the hallway away from the boy’s room, ignoring cheryl’s attempts to shrug out of her grip before she opens a door to the on call room and shoves cheryl inside quickly. 

“what the hell are you doing!?” cheryl growls, knowing _full well_ what happens in these on call rooms in this hospital, but toni raises a finger to her lips to silence her as she shuts the door behind her and looks at cheryl with a scoff of disbelief. she’s quiet for a few moments, simply staring at the redhead before her until she runs her fingers through her hair and finally talks. 

“cheryl…outside of this hospital, yes, i’m the woman you had a one night stand with. a really… _really_ great one night stand with, but… _inside_ this hospital, i’m an attending and you’re an intern, which means i am your superior!” toni says only slightly loudly, looking at cheryl sternly as the intern watches her in disbelief and shock.

is she seriously getting told off right now?

toni’s eyes suddenly soften, and she steps forward, a hand reaching out to take cheryl’s before she thinks the better of it and drops it by her waist again.

“we’re surgeons, doctor blossom. lives are in our hands, so no, i am not trying to make a move on you because in this building, in _this_ hospital, i am saving lives. i am a doctor. so please…stop being afraid of me and stop thinking every smile or wink or nudge or me putting you on my service is me trying to get into your pants again. you are a doctor, cheryl. lives are in your hands, and i am trying to ease your anxiety because we are dealing with children in peds, and if we’re scared, the kids are scared, and god, they have enough to be scared about as it is without their doctors showing them how scared they are, too.” toni whispers, tears filling her eyes as she swallows thickly, and cheryl simply stares at her, at a complete loss of what to say or do at this clear showcase of vulnerability in the woman before her.

how…god, how could she be so stupid? how could she seriously think that toni was just fucking around with her? she’s right…they’re doctors and people’s lives are in their hands…

she needs to do better. she needs to _be_ better. not just for her patients but for herself.

“i’m…i’m sorry, i-.”

“don’t apologize. just listen and understand. i have children in my care, cheryl. so i need you to be on the ball and not get distracted. can you do that for me, please?” toni asks softly, this smile that makes cheryl’s heart skip a beat lighting up her face as the redhead lets out a shaky breath and simply nods once.

“i…of course, yeah.” 

“great…in that case, here’s his chart. memorize it. you’ll present with me and doctor jones in twenty minutes, okay?” toni says, handing cheryl the chart with ease as the redhead takes it into her trembling hands.

“okay.” cheryl whispers softly, glancing down at the child’s chart before she feels a warm hand on her shoulder. she looks up to see toni smiling at her, this look of sympathy and something else on her face as she squeezes cheryl gently.

“you can do this.” cheryl simply nods numbly in response, and before she can say anything else, toni’s exiting the room, and cheryl’s left on her own to read the chart of a boy who is eight years old and dying of cancer.

it isn’t fair.

it just…isn’t fair.

—

"hey, betty? can i have a word?" 

betty cooper instantly bites back the groan threatening to spill from her at the sound of archie andrews's voice, but regardless, she turns around to see the man himself staring at her with those goddamn puppy dog eyes, and she wants nothing more than to slap him and tell him to get a grip because she has a needle and a thread hovering above a patient's face, sewing together the skin that's been cut and she really doesn't want to be distracted right now...

"i'm almost done here, can you give-." 

"is she really gay?" archie blurts out, stepping closer to her and causing betty to pause as she looks up at her patient with a tight smile.

"uh...one moment, sir." she croaks out, ignoring the way the patient looks at archie with a chuckle as she stands and snips the thread, takes off her gloves and leads archie to a more...quiet place.

as soon as they're in one of the examination rooms, betty sighs and turns to see archie looking at her morosely. 

"i just wanna know if she is, because what if she's just saying it because she's not interested in me and-."

"archie!" betty yells, reaching out and gripping his shoulders in frustration as archie looks at her with wide eyes in shock at her outburst. betty immediately feels the guilt flood her, and she sighs and moves her hands down to grip his own, squeezing them lightly with a sad, sympathetic smile.

"archie, you are an incredible guy, and any woman would be lucky to have you. but as much as you want her to be, cheryl is _not_ that woman, okay? she wasn't lying to get you to leave her alone, and i'm pretty sure if we were in another universe where she was straight, she would go for you, but...we're not. we're in this universe, and in this universe...she's totally gay." betty reassures him, watching as archie's shoulders completely slump in defeat at her words. 

"but veronica...she said i had a chance-."

"ugh, veronica's an ass that likes causing drama! archie, cheryl is my cousin, i've known her my whole life, so when i tell you she's gay..." betty trails off, chewing on her bottom lip as archie once again sags even lower in defeat and simply nods once in understanding.

"she's gay." he concludes. betty sighs and gives his hands another squeeze of comfort. 

"i'm sorry, arch."

"no, don't be, i just...man, she's just so-."

"i know. trust me, i've been dealing with disappointed guys our whole lives together." betty says with a laugh, watching sadly as archie chuckles before he clenches his jaw and exhales deeply. 

"well...i guess i just gotta get over it, huh?" he says with a sad smile. betty simply nods once and tries her best not to panic at the way her heart flutters just at the sight of that goddamn smile. 

"i'm sure you'll find someone...and that someone will be lucky to have you." she whispers. archie's smile is goddamn heart stopping, and he pulls betty into his embrace for the briefest moment before he's pressing a kiss to the crown of her head and-

"thanks, betty." 

and with that, he leaves the room, and betty watches him go with her heart still racing before her feet slowly carry her out of the room and back into the emergency room.

"crap...crap, crap, you do _not_ have feelings for archie andrews, elizabeth cooper-."

"hey! are you gonna finish these stitches or what, lady?!"

\--

“so you’re saying there’s nothing more that we can do?” 

his name is evan crow. his mother looks to cheryl, toni and chief jones with complete and utter helplessness written in her eyes, and cheryl can feel the way her heart clenches and the way her body seems to want nothing more than to run from this room and never return, and she’s five seconds away from doing as it wishes.

she can’t be here.

not for this.

“evan’s cancer has become aggressive, and his treatment plan is no longer working. the leukemia…it’s not going anywhere, samantha. i’m sorry, i wish there was more we could do for him but at this point in time…to continue treating him in his weakened condition would just be cruel.” toni says softly, her jaw clenching as if she’s keeping back tears while evan’s mother whines and shakes her head, staring down at her son in despair.

“if it gives him more time it’s worth it!”

“there is no more time, mrs. crow. he only has a few months left…let him go home with his family…with you. let him spend his last few months surrounded by love. not tubes and medicine and doctors…” chief jones says hoarsely, this look in his eyes that cheryl doesn’t quite understand, but one that almost looks haunted as mrs. crow sniffles once and leans down to kiss her son’s brow.

“he’s only eight…it isn’t fair.” she whispers, tears falling down her cheeks and into her son’s sleeping hair, and cheryl feels that last thread within her break.

“excuse m-me…” she manages to get out before she’s running out of the room at top speed and making a break for the stairs, not even caring at the people that watch her go in confusion through her mess of tears that fall down her face and stain her cheeks.

it isn’t fair. it isn’t fair, it isn’t fair, it isn’t fair-

she somehow makes it to the entrance of the hospital, the sliding doors opening quickly for her as she takes in a huge gulp of fresh air and makes a beeline for the benches in front of the parking lot, her feet carrying her subconsciously to safety while her mind continues to spin and her heart continues to ache.

she should’ve never taken this case, she should’ve told toni to leave her alone, she’s so stupid, it’s just brought up so, so much pain-

“cheryl?”

the red haired girl glances up at the sound of her name and quickly wipes away the tears staining her cheeks as betty cooper makes her way over, a frown of concern lighting up her face the closer she gets to her crying cousin.

“what happened? are you okay? you didn’t lose another patient, did you?” betty whispers, sitting down beside her on the bench outside the hospital and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as cheryl swallows the lump in her throat and simply shakes her head.

“i…just h-had to tell an eight year old boy with cancer that there’s nothing more we can do to help him. he’s going to die…and we can’t do anything to stop it.” 

recognition flashes behind betty’s green eyes, and her expression softens before she scoots closer to cheryl and pulls her cousin closer into her arms.

“oh, cheryl…i’m so sorry.” she whispers softly, a heavy sigh escaping her as cheryl chokes back a sob and buries her face into betty’s shoulder. 

god, this day has been so terrible…cheryl just wants it to fucking end…as much as she loves this job, the downside to all of it will always be having to tell people they’re going to die and there’s nothing anyone can fucking do about it…

"archie came to me today about you." betty says suddenly, and cheryl finds herself shaking her head almost immediately because she doesn't want to hear it, not now, please not now-

“doctor blossom?” 

cheryl bites back a groan at the sound of her voice because of _course_ she'd show up right now, but pulls herself out of betty’s grip regardless and looks up to see none other than toni topaz staring at her, a sad smile lighting up her features before she tilts her head to the side and observes cheryl with wonder.

“are you okay?” toni whispers, stepping forward before she glances at betty cautiously, and the blonde simply sighs as cheryl wipes away her tears once more and shakes her head.

“n-no, not really.” she croaks out, unsure of why she’s even telling toni the truth when the pink haired doctor squares her shoulders and looks to betty with a smile.

“would you mind giving us a moment, uh…”

“doctor betty cooper, i’m an intern at the hospital along with cheryl.” betty says with a smile, extending a hand that toni happily takes with a soft chuckle. 

“doctor toni topaz, new head of peds.” she says, eyes trailing down to cheryl once more, who watches as betty looks on in confusion before-

“oh…oh! uh, yeah, i’ll just…go.” she says awkwardly, eyes wide as she jumps up from the bench and makes her way back into the hospital, only glancing back once with a cheeky grin as cheryl sighs and looks up at toni anxiously.

“i’m sorry, i just needed ten minutes to breathe-.”

“you take as long as you need, cheryl.” toni croaks out, smiling as she shoves her hands into her pockets and sits down beside cheryl with an exasperated sigh, shrugging her jacket closer to her body as she does.

it’s quiet for a few moments, the cold air causing their breath to come out in fog as they sit there, tears slowly falling down cheryl’s cheeks, and for reasons she can’t begin to fathom, she opens her mouth and-

“i had a twin brother once. his name was jason…he was my best friend in the whole goddamn world, he was…he was my _person._ ” cheryl whispers, her whole body shivering, and not just from the cold as toni lets out a shaky breath and inches closer to her.

“what happened to him?” she whispers, her hand ever so gently brushing the hair around cheryl’s shoulders back behind them as the red haired girl chokes on a sob and shakes her head.

“he had an ac-accident when we were e-eight…fell and h-hit his head. my p-parents were out of town and it was just me, jason and the butler…he begged me not to say anything because he was having so much fun with our parents out of town, he didn’t want to ruin it by b-bringing them back early…” cheryl whimpers, unable to stop herself as toni once again shuffles closer to her, her warmth causing goosebumps to immediately rise on cheryl’s skin…

“his brain was bleeding for hours and…i d-didn’t say anything! and i woke up the n-next morning and he j-just…he didn’t! he d-didn’t wake up-.”

“shh…shhh, i’ve got you…” toni coos softly, pulling cheryl into her embrace as the redhead sobs openly into her shoulder, unable to contain herself. the warmth of toni’s body has her inching closer on instinct, fingers gripping the lapels of toni’s jacket as the pink haired doctor rubs her back soothingly. 

it shouldn't feel this right but it does...

_oh, fuck..._

“shh…i’m so sorry, cheryl, i never should’ve put you on this case-.”

“n-no! you p-probably sh-shouldn’t have, but you d-didn’t kn-know…” cheryl manages to get out, smiling as she looks up at toni with a hiccup. 

and toni smiles and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear before-

“neither did you.” she whispers. cheryl feels her heart clench, and toni sighs and brushes the tears from her cheeks with a gloved hand and a soft, but reassuring nod.

“you didn’t know his brain was bleeding, sometimes you can never see the signs. you can’t beat yourself up for it.” she croaks out. 

but cheryl simply shakes her head, not willing to hear any of it in this moment…

“just…p-please-.” she stutters, her chest heaving and her heart aching as toni licks her lips before she nods once and smiles as best as she can.

“okay…forget i said anything, how about i just hold you instead?” she asks softly, arms opening once more to accept cheryl, and god, the redhead just wants to sink in her embrace because toni is so warm and so _gentle_ , but instead, she pushes toni back with a shake of her head.

“you can’t…you said we can’t-.” cheryl chokes out, and toni, as always, smirks cheekily and nods towards the hospital just a few feet ahead of them. 

“mmm, i said we can’t inside the hospital, technically we’re outside it.” she says with a grin, one that cheryl can’t help but return, but still…

“toni…”

“i know…i’m sorry, i just…i can’t help it.” toni whispers, eyes focused purely on cheryl and the way she’s breathing and how the lights from the hospital hit her at a certain angle that has her eyes shining and her face…

“you’re so beautiful…” toni blurts out, unable to stop herself, unable to contain it as cheryl inhales sharply and licks her lips before looking to toni sadly.

“you’re my boss.” cheryl whispers.

“i know.” toni whispers back.

it’s quiet once again for a few moments, the both of them just staring at each other, drinking each other in, and cheryl finds her eyes subconsciously trailing down to the strands of hair over toni’s shoulder, her fingers reaching for a lock of hair before she can stop herself.

“your hair…why is it pink?” she asks curiously, watching as toni smiles and lets out a little chuckle before she’s simply shrugging and nodding back to the hospital once more.

“i’m a peds surgeon, cher. kids like color. keeps them happy, especially if those colors are on people’s heads, and especially if it’s a color that _shouldn’t_ be on someone’s head…makes them feel better.” 

“feel better?” cheryl asks in confusion, and toni’s smile is _world stopping_ as she nods once.

“about being different.” she says simply. cheryl swallows the lump in her throat, but nods in understanding as she anxiously begins playing with her fingers, because fuck, toni’s presence is so intimidating, yet so _comforting_ at the same time, cheryl doesn’t understand it at all…

“go out to dinner with me.”

cheryl looks up in surprise, sees toni looking at her with a smile that has her suppressing a shudder, a smile that has her almost blurting out the word ‘yes’, but instead-

“toni, i can’t, i…i _want_ to, but you’re my boss and it’s just going to raise questions and-.”

“okay…okay, you don’t want to jeopardize your spot in the program, i get it.” toni says firmly, nodding along with a look of regret as cheryl chews on her bottom lip and looks down at her hands in sadness, unable to watch the look of disappointment in toni’s eyes.

“i’m sorry.” she whispers, and toni laughs lightly and suddenly takes one of cheryl’s hands into her own, giving it a tight squeeze as she does.

“mmm…don’t be. we’ll always have last night.” she says fondly, prompting cheryl to laugh despite herself as she looks at toni with a smirk.

“i’m surprised you remember any of it, you had just as many drinks as i did.” she teases, and toni surprises her with a smirk of her own as she raises an eyebrow and simply shrugs.

“well, no matter how many drinks i had, cheryl blossom, you…are hard to forget.” she says in a low voice, eyes taking in the girl before her in a way that has cheryl suppressing a shudder despite herself.

“mmm…quite the charmer, aren’t you?” cheryl breathes, heart racing, palms sweating, she can’t do it, don’t lean in, please don’t lean in-

“i have my ways…” toni whispers back, eyes dropping down to cheryl’s lips before they move back up-

“doctor topaz!”

they spring apart, cheryl’s heart pounding in her ears with panic as she looks up to see chief jones making his way toward them with a smile on his face, oblivious to any tension of any kind between them from so far away-

“is everything alright?” he asks as soon as he reaches them, looking between the both of them as toni clears her throat and offers him a simple smile before she stands abruptly.

“of course, chief. it's just a little overwhelming for the both of us i think." toni says, looking at cheryl knowingly as the chief comes to a stop a few feet from them. 

“ahh, yes...never gets easy telling a patient they're going to die...but you did a good job today, the both of you. now if you’ll join me in my office, antoinette, i’d like to go over a few more things in your contract with you.” chief jones says with a smile and a nod, and cheryl bites down on her bottom lip and looks at toni as she nods once and looks back down at cheryl with a warm smile.

"i'm sure i can spare a moment! and please, chief...call me 'toni'." she says with a cheeky grin, prompting the chief to laugh as she makes a move to follow him back towards the hospital, but not before she looks to cheryl once more...

“doctor blossom…” she says softly before she's walking away without a backwards glance, and cheryl finds herself watching her leave with nothing but longing, wishing more than anything that the chief had never interrupted them, that she had gotten the kiss she so wanted in that moment...

oh, this is so not good.

_god, you’re so fucked, cheryl…_


	2. fifty bucks says he chokes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> helllooooo, after a very close poll on twitter, here's chapter two of this lovely little fic! again, still no schedule for updating because I don't want to pressure myself to hurry, but hopefully I can get chapter three out next week, no promises though! 
> 
> also, a few things were inaccurate in the first chapter so I've gone back and edited it to make sure it's as realistic as possible, hope it doesn't cause any confusion!
> 
> anyway, leave a comment letting me know what you think or you can hit me up on twitter at @endofdaysforme! hope you enjoy it guys!

“we need to talk.” 

cheryl almost completely slips in the shower at the sound of her cousin’s voice, her hands reaching out to grip the shower door as she opens it lightly and peeks her head out to look at her in surprise.

“it couldn’t wait until i finish in here?” cheryl asks with a roll of her eyes, raising an eyebrow in amusement at how betty paces back and forth in the bathroom with an anxious look on her face. 

“no.” she says simply, and cheryl bites back a grin before she closes the door and moves back under the shower head once more. 

“alright, go for it.” cheryl calls out, and it’s quiet for a few moments before-

“i think i might like archie.” 

cheryl pauses, eyes snapping open in shock as she flails to reach for the shower door once more. she opens it, wincing at the way it squeaks as she peeks her head out once more and looks at betty in surprise. 

“like as in ‘like’ like?” she demands, watching as betty chews on the inside of her cheek before she groans and nods slowly.

“yes! i…god, he came up to me yesterday and wanted to talk to me about you because he was still all hung up about you being gay and i told him there’s like, a minus zero percent chance of it ever happening with you-.”

“thank you for that.” cheryl says genuinely, grinning when betty rolls her eyes at her and waves her off dismissively. 

“yeah well, then he hugged me and kissed my forehead and, god, i just…i don’t even know, it’s like my heart stopped and i couldn’t breathe properly! is that normal?” betty groans, looking at cheryl anxiously, and the redhead feels her heart skip a beat as she chews on her bottom lip and tries her best not to think of pink hair or full lips, or…god, those bright brown eyes that always seem to shine so mischievously…

“no…definitely not normal.” she whispers, clearing her throat and moving back under the shower head, closing her eyes and allowing the water to fall over her face and body as betty whines and plops down onto the toilet seat with her head in her hands.

“i so can’t like him! he’s my co-worker, my-my colleague! we can’t do anything together!” betty exclaims, prompting cheryl to hang her head guiltily at the continuous thoughts of toni that continue to swirl in her brain.

she’s right, god, betty’s right…but cheryl doesn’t want her to be, she really doesn’t…

“maybe…maybe there’s a chance you can! i mean, it’s not like it’ll prevent you from doing your job, and we can’t put our dating lives on hold! we’re at the hospital all the time, they can’t expect us not to date each other!” cheryl scoffs, trying to justify her own wants and needs before washing the remaining soap off her body as betty sighs behind the glass.

“there’s no way the hospital would allow it, cheryl! and besides, he’s still hung up on you, he probably doesn’t even look twice at me! he probably doesn’t even like me!” she grumbles as cheryl shuts off the water and opens the door, smiling when she sees betty holding a towel out to her with her eyes closed and a pout on her face.

“why do i have to get a crush on someone who’s totally unavailable?” she sighs, and cheryl takes the towel from her and wraps it around her body while trying to ignore the voice in her head that says ‘ditto’ before she grips betty’s shoulder reassuringly. 

“i think you should go for it! there’s nothing wrong with dating a co-worker as far as i’m concerned.” she says stiffly, trying her best to stop her cheeks from flushing as betty’s shoulders sag and she smiles.

“there’s everything wrong with it. i just have to accept that it can’t happen.” she croaks out. cheryl’s about to respond that she shouldn’t give up, that she should fight for what she wants while blatantly ignoring how this current situation also applies to herself when the door suddenly bursts open-

and veronica stands before them, grinning from ear to ear as she looks at the both of them gleefully. 

“oooh, are we having a conference?” she asks wickedly, and betty and cheryl exchange a glance before-

“nope. not at all!” 

—

“okay, interns! gather around, please!”

doctor chipping’s voice echoing out from the entrance to the intern’s locker room has everyone jumping into position and rushing towards it, and cheryl winces when she sees doctor chipping look her up and down before he’s cocking an eyebrow and smirking at her.

“ah, nice of you to join us _on time_ , doctor blossom!” he says with a grin, prompting cheryl to clench her left fist and dig her nails into her palm to stop herself from launching forward and hitting him square in his stupid face, the bastard-

“alright, doctor andrews…with doctor desantos today, you’ve got a lovely little haemangioblastoma waiting for you!”

cheryl blinks once and looks up at archie in shock as he exchanges glances with every single intern who is now staring at him with nothing but outright jealousy. 

“i…uh, yes sir.” he croaks out, looking at cheryl once more as she ignores veronica’s very loud angry huff behind her.

“dammit, why couldn’t i be on neuro today!? do you know how rare haemangioblastomas are?!” she hisses into cheryl’s ear angrily. 

“about two percent of brain tumors are haemangioblastomas, so pretty rare.” betty murmurs under her breath to them. cheryl bites on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing as veronica glares at betty stonily.

“thank you, captain obvious!” 

“ladies, am i interrupting something?” doctor chipping says, looking their way with a less than impressed frown on his face as veronica clears her throat and shakes her head.

“no, sir!”

“good, in that case, you’ll be doing scut for the day, doctor lodge. as for you, doctor blossom, you’re with doctor grande in ortho, and cooper, doctor topaz has requested you in peds.” 

cheryl freezes, her heart dropping to somewhere beneath her toes as she tries to process what doctor chipping just told her.

she thought for sure she’d be on peds again, does…does toni not want her around? but they had that moment last night on the benches outside the hospital…

she doesn’t get it.

she just doesn’t get it.

“wait a minute…doctor topaz is requesting _betty_?” cheryl asks doctor chipping with confusion, watching apprehensively as he rolls his eyes with a sigh and looks to her with a raised eyebrow.

“yes, she has requested _doctor cooper._ is there a problem with that, doctor blossom?” he asks, crossing his arms over his chest as cheryl bows her head and shakes it once.

“n-no, not at all, sir, it’s just…i worked on a case with her yesterday and the child is being discharged today, i…i just wanted to see him off-.”

“that patient is being discharged, doctor blossom, which means that child is no longer sick! there are patients in this hospital who need our care who are _still_ sick, just because you got a little attached, doesn’t mean they should be neglected!” he says with a scoff of disbelief, and cheryl…

well, this rage within her seems to just burst forth before she can stop it, and she’s responding before she can stop herself.

“the patient has leukemia, we’re sending him home to die. i think having a familiar face there to see him off will comfort him, considering he’s only eight years old.” she says stiffly, anger seeping through her entire goddamn body as all the color seems to drain from doctor chipping’s face. he clears his throat and avoids eye contact with cheryl, and every single one of the interns watch as he clenches his jaw before he nods once with his eyes still glued to the chart in his hands.

“well…if you find five minutes in your schedule then…sure. but your other patients need you too, blossom…don’t disappoint them.” he grumbles.

“no, sir.” she says simply, ignoring veronica’s sharp inhale behind her as doctor chipping hands out the charts and passes hers to her with his eyes averted, clearly feeling either guilty or embarrassed for being called out like that-

“now go be doctors and leave me the hell alone!” he barks before he’s leaving the room, and it’s quiet for a few moments before everyone begins talking and looking at cheryl in shock and also awe. 

“damn, when did you grow some balls, blossom?!” reggie calls out, grinning at her as she tries to calm her racing heart, and archie grins at her and holds his hand out, which she high fives with a smirk as veronica scoffs in disbelief.

“what the hell?! you tell him off and _i’m_ the one that ends up doing scut?! this is bullshit!” 

cheryl grins and simply shrugs, but looks down at her chart with doctor grande’s name at the top with a frown, wondering just why toni has requested betty’s service instead of hers.

did she do something wrong? cheryl could’ve sworn they had a bit of a moment last night outside…is toni avoiding her purposefully? maybe toni doesn’t want to be around her anymore, or…

oh god…toni had a meeting with the chief last night, what if he noticed how close they were on that bench? what if...oh fuck…fuck, fuck, fuck-

“cheryl, you okay?” veronica asks as she notices the way cheryl's face grows impossible paler, and the redhead barely looks up at her before she’s rushing off down the corridor and heading straight for the pediatrics ward, her chart under her arm and her whole body shaking with panic.

the chief knows. the chief knows, it’s over, it’s all over, oh god, she’s gonna get kicked out of the program and toni might even get fired, one fucking moment of weakness-

chief jones can’t fire them, can he? they didn’t know, they didn’t know at all, he can’t fire them for sleeping together when they didn’t know they were going to be working together, oh god, she’s gonna vomit-

the second she enters the peds ward and sees a flash of pink hair, she’s rushing straight toward her, and toni barely turns around at the sound of cheryl’s rushing footsteps before the redhead is grabbing her elbow and dragging her toward the stairs where they first saw each other yesterday.

“cheryl? hey, what’s going on-.” 

“why didn’t you request me on your service? did the chief find out about us? did he tell you to stay away from me? are you getting fired? am _i_ getting fired?” cheryl says in a panic, looking at toni frantically and watching as the pink haired doctor’s brown eyes widen in shock before she’s shrugging out of her hold and gripping cheryl’s shoulders with a laugh of surprise.

“hey, whoa, cheryl! calm down, no, the chief doesn’t know anything and no one is getting fired, okay?” toni says simply, looking at cheryl with a raised eyebrow as the intern stares at her in confusion now.

“i…oh, i just, it’s…betty?” cheryl asks with a slight pout, chewing on the inside of her cheek anxiously as toni chuckles and leans back a little against the railing of the stairs. 

“yeah, betty. i have to work with the other interns, cheryl, i can’t just work with you. it’ll show favoritism and what not.” she says nonchalantly, waving her hand dismissively as cheryl nods in understanding, her racing heart beginning to calm down now thanks to toni’s reassurance. 

so the chief doesn’t know…that’s good, it means neither of them are in danger of losing their jobs at least…she really needs to stop jumping to conclusions, she’s gonna have a fucking heart attack one day…

“but…what about evan? he’s being discharged today-.”

“betty can take care of it. go and see him if you get a chance, but…after yesterday and the memories it brought up of your brother, i figured you might want to keep your distance.” toni says with a soft smile, watching cheryl as she immediately shakes her head and gives toni a smile back despite her heart aching at the thought of her dear twin brother.

_evan is not jason, cheryl..._

“not at all.” she whispers. toni’s eyes widen before she’s staring at cheryl with this look cheryl can’t explain, this look that has toni leaning in very, very briefly before she’s clearing her throat and stepping back once more with a nod. 

“mmm…you should go where you need to be, cheryl. i’ll see you around, okay?” toni says quickly, and before cheryl can do anything, toni’s opening the door and walking out, leaving cheryl alone in the staircase, confused and completely nonplussed. 

“okay…”

—

the morning passes by very quickly, and cheryl collapses into her chair at the cafeteria with a heavy sigh, her back and feet aching after a four hour procedure to repair a broken arm. 

it isn’t long before veronica joins her, and she’s quickly followed by archie and eventually josie, the three of them looking to cheryl expectantly as she takes a sip of her orange juice and looks at them in confusion.

“what?” she demands.

“heard you chewed out doctor chipping this morning. good for you!” josie says with a grin, taking a bite of her sandwich as archie grins widely at cheryl with that oh so familiar look of awe…

_dammit, archie…_

“it was amazing! he totally deserved it, too! i mean, how does he expect us to be good doctors if we don’t care for our patients?” archie says with a scoff, glaring at veronica as she steals some of his fries and munches on them with slight disgruntlement. 

“yeah, she tells him off and yet i’m the scut monkey for the day! god, i hate doing charts all day, it’s fucking painful.” she groans, stealing another fry and ignoring archie completely as he attempts to slap her hand away. 

“next time don’t complain about me getting in on a haemangioblastoma then.” archie says triumphantly. josie gasps and looks at him with wide eyes.

“boy, what?! you’re in on a haemangioblastoma?! damn…i’m a second year resident and i haven’t gotten in on that before! you are one lucky intern, archie andrews.” she says with a sigh, and archie’s grin only widens as he looks at cheryl, who quickly averts her gaze and bites back a groan because she so can’t deal with archie’s puppy dog eyes right now-

“betty, hey!” cheryl’s gaze snaps up as her cousin makes her way over to them, looking exhausted, but somewhat happy as she falls into the chair beside cheryl with a shake of her head.

“god, i don’t know how doctor topaz does it. dealing with sick children day in and day out, it’s horrible! there’s a kid with leukemia-.”

“evan crow.” cheryl whispers, looking to betty sadly as her cousin nods glumly.

“his mother’s been crying all day and i feel like i’m about to cry every damn time i see her. and it’s not just him, it’s a whole goddamn ward of sick kids! peds is hardcore… _doctor topaz_ is hardcore.” betty says in awe, and cheryl bites down on her bottom lip, contemplates asking what she wants to ask-

“so i’m guessing you like our new peds doctor, huh, betty?” archie asks with a chuckle, looking at the blonde girl, who immediately flushes as she averts her gaze down to her food and shrugs with a nervous chuckle.

“uh, yeah! y-yeah, i guess so.” 

cheryl cocks an eyebrow at her as if to say ‘really?’, because she can’t believe her cousin is acting like a five year old with a school yard crush, and archie just looks confused as cheryl feels her pager vibrate in the breast pocket of her scrubs. she pulls it out, sees the page from doctor grande, and sighs before she jumps up and drains the rest of her orange juice before nodding at the others.

“duty calls! gotta go save lives!” 

“you’re probably just resetting a dislocated shoulder, calm down doctor quinn, medicine woman!” veronica says with a hearty laugh.

cheryl just gives her the middle finger and keeps walking, but she pauses as she reaches the elevator, and before she can help herself, she’s pressing the button for level four.

the peds floor. 

well...doctor grande didn't add an emergency code to that page he sent...

she makes her way off and heads straight for evan’s room, hoping against hope that he hasn’t been discharged yet-

as if on cue, a wheelchair rounds the corner, and who else would be pushing it but toni topaz herself, the woman smiling and laughing as she talks to evan, who is looking up at her with a weak and tired smile of his own while his mother follows behind them like a zombie, eyes distant and filled with anguish…

“hey, evan!” cheryl calls out, grinning as the boy looks up at her and his smile only widens.

“hi doctor blossom! i’m going home today!” he says with excitement, but not enough to hide his sadness, and cheryl blinks back tears and looks up at toni, who sighs and gives her a reassuring nod before she’s turning to talk to evan’s mother, pulling her aside for some privacy, and at the sight, cheryl jumps into action.

“you sure are, buddy! hey…” cheryl comes to a stop in front of his wheelchair and kneels down so she’s eye level with him, a smile slowly forming at the way he reaches out to take one of her hands almost immediately.

such small hands…god, he’s only eight years old…

“i’m gonna be fine, doctor blossom. it’s my mom i’m worried about…do you think she’s gonna be okay?” he asks softly, squeezing her hand as cheryl looks up at evan’s mother to see her crying into her hands while toni rubs her back soothingly with a somber expression.

cheryl closes her eyes, remembers her mother and the way she had roamed around the house like a zombie for years after jason’s death, as if she was just a husk of what she used to be…

cheryl quickly eliminates those memories, because she hasn't seen her mother in almost five years, and miss crow...she's ten times the mother penelope blossom ever was or will be.

“your mother is going to be just fine, evan. she’s going to be sad for awhile, and that’s okay, because it’s okay to be sad about things, especially losing someone you love. but she’ll move forward, and she’ll be okay. but she’ll always miss you, and that’s okay, too. you just hold her and tell her you love her as much as you can while you can, alright?” cheryl croaks out, her tears threatening to spill over as evan lets out a shaky breath and nods.

“okay. i will…i promise.”

“mmm, good man.” cheryl smiles and holds a hand up, and evan weakly high fives it as toni comes back up behind his wheelchair with tears sparkling in her own eyes.

“come on, evan…let’s get you home.” she whispers. cheryl reaches out to grip toni’s elbow, to give her some form of support, but before she can-

“not now, just…not now, cheryl.” she croaks out, and cheryl swallows the lump in her throat and nods once before she watches toni leave, her heart aching and her whole being wishing there was some kind of way to make this all better.

—

veronica lodge is many things. a good surgeon, an incredible doctor, and a goddamn hard worker to boot.

but this? this is so below her.

she really fucking hates doing scut all day.

she groans as her wrist aches, but she pushes through it and writes down mrs. hathaway’s final vitals from when she checked them ten minutes ago into her chart before she looks up and notices betty walking across the reception desk she’s seated at.

_oh, i needed a distraction, perfect!_

“betty!” she jumps up, tucks her favorite pen given to her by her father into her lab coat pocket and makes a beeline for the blonde, throwing an arm around her as she tucks mrs. hathaway’s chart into the cart with other patient charts.

“is scut _that_ boring, veronica?” betty says with a sigh, grinning all the same as veronica squeezes her lightly with a grin. 

“what, i need an excuse to talk to my favorite girl!?” she exclaims, but of course, betty sees right through her.

because she pauses and looks at veronica with narrowed eyes before-

“…okay, what do you want?” she says with a roll of her eyes, and veronica, ever mischievous veronica lodge, gasps in mock surprise and shakes her head. 

“nothing! just…ya know…wondering why exactly you were looking at archie like the sun shines out of his ass in the cafeteria today-whoa!” 

her arm is gripped and before veronica can even think, she’s being shoved into the on call room and betty’s slamming the door shut behind them, and before she can say anything, veronica’s grinning and looking up at her cheekily.

“well, we’ve been here before, haven’t we?” she teases. betty’s eyes widen, her whole body freezing in shock as she stares at veronica in panic.

and veronica laughs loudly and rolls her eyes at the blonde before her.

“relax! jeez, you always get so wound up-.”

“it was one time!” betty screeches, and veronica laughs so hard, her stomach begins to hurt and her face turns red from lack of oxygen.

it _was_ one time, in their first month as interns. cheryl, veronica and betty have been friends for _years_ , obviously. cheryl and betty grew up together, went to college together, and found the third piece of their puzzle in veronica when they met her at med school almost five years ago. since then, they’ve been stuck together like glue…so when veronica had witnessed betty completely tank and almost kill a patient, she had brought her into the nearest on call room to calm her down and, well…in a moment of weakness…

betty had kissed her.

well, veronica’s never been one to deny a kiss no matter who it’s coming from, and one thing led to another, and…they fucked.

not a big deal. happens all the damn time in this hospital. besides, veronica’s very well aware that betty is totally straight, considering she barely touched veronica during it, and veronica herself may identify as bisexual, but she leans more towards men than women, so as far as she’s concerned, it was just a bit of fun, no harm, no foul. 

of course…that also means veronica is required to bring it up whenever possible to tease betty because it’s fucking hilarious watching her squirm every time she mentions it, just like right now, as betty wrings her hands and-

“veronica!”

“what, it’s fucking funny! we hooked up once and it was fun, it’s not a big deal! now, you like archie? what are you gonna do about it?” veronica says sternly, crossing her arms over her chest and watching in surprise as betty rolls her eyes and throws her arms up into the air.

“nothing! we work together, we can’t date!” she exclaims as she collapses down onto one of the beds with a groan. veronica scoffs despite herself and waves her hand dismissively. 

“says who?! you know how many times i’ve hooked up with reggie in the on call rooms? pretty sure i’ve hooked up with him in here once too, actually…” veronica says, glancing around the familiar room with a frown, trying to remember, was it last week or the week before? she remembers seeing that plant when he pinned her to the wall-

“ew!” betty cries out, jumping up from the bed with a shiver as veronica rolls her eyes with a laugh.

“oh relax, they change the sheets! you should ask him out!” 

“what, who? reggie?!”

“no, you idiot! archie! he’s all hung up on cheryl, who he _definitely_ doesn’t have a chance with, i think you’re the perfect person to take his mind off her!” veronica says firmly with a nod, and betty blinks in surprise before she’s biting down on her bottom lip and shaking her head.

“i can’t, ronnie! i just…can’t.” betty croaks out. veronica cocks an eyebrow and looks at her best friend with a sigh before she simply shrugs.

“fine, suit yourself. but he’s cute, and someone else is gonna find him cute eventually. so if you don’t shoot your shot soon, you’re gonna miss your chance. just saying.” and with that, veronica makes her way to the door and makes her way out, but not before betty whines and yells-

“i hate you!”

and veronica simply grins and turns back before blowing a kiss at her.

“i love you, too!” 

—

"see, this...this is why i became a surgeon." veronica breathes, leaning in closer from her seat in the gallery with a look of awe on her face as cheryl, betty, reggie and josie all look at the monitor to the side to see what archie right now is seeing.

an exposed human brain right before their very eyes...

well, through a goddamn monitor. it's _archie_ who is seeing it up close and personal...

"god, i'm jealous." josie groans, prompting reggie to scoff as he opens a bag of chips loudly.

"of bambi? please, fifty bucks says he chokes." he laughs, prompting betty to glare at him angrily.

"shut up, reggie! he's one of us, you know! how would you feel if someone was up here saying you'd choke while you're in there trying to save a patient's life?!" she hisses, and reggie opens his mouth to reply before cheryl's rolling her eyes and cutting him off.

"both of you shut up! this is a surgery that'll likely only come around a couple times in our careers, we don't want to miss a single second!" 

"she's got a point there, y'all." josie says with a nod, watching with a smile as doctor desantos nods down at the brain and looks up at archie.

"you see the size of that tumor? no wonder her migraines were so severe, i'm surprised she hasn't lost sight already...now, how best do we go about cutting this thing out without causing this woman to lose her eyesight permanently, doctor andrews?" doctor desantos asks, his voice echoing out through the intercom in the gallery as he looks to archie expectantly. all five of them lean in closer to get a better look as archie frowns and clears his throat, his feet shifting nervously, and cheryl finds herself muttering the answer under her breath despite herself.

"check to make sure the tumor isn't invading any of the optic nerves..." cheryl starts, and veronica looks up at her with a grin.

"cauterize and cut any vessels connected to the tumor while making sure to avoid causing damage to the nerve itself." she finishes. cheryl winks at her, knows this was something they studied extensively in med school, and sure enough, archie's on the same wavelength, because-

"we have to check to make sure the tumor isn't connected to the optic nerves, and if it is...we work as carefully as we can to separate the blood vessels connecting them. one wrong move-."

"could result in our patient losing her eyesight forever. correct, doctor andrews...nice work." doctor desantos says, and cheryl grins widely as archie looks up at them smugly, nodding once at his fellow colleagues before he's focusing once more on the brain in front of him. 

"oh, good job, archie!" betty breathes, and reggie scoffs and rolls his eyes before he's jumping up and leaving the gallery looking slightly miffed, but cheryl, betty, veronica and josie stay put, more than happy to watch their friend do something incredible despite wanting nothing more than to be in his shoes themselves.

—

cheryl has no idea why she’s here.

she knows she shouldn’t be, she isn’t on peds service today and frankly, she's exhausted after spending almost seven hours watching archie's surgery, which had gone smoothly and had been a complete success. she knows she should actually be at the bar across the street right now with her friends, celebrating archie's amazing work today, and yet...

and yet…

she finds herself roaming the hallways at eleven o’clock at night, looking around for any sign of pink hair because she saw toni’s face this afternoon when she was wheeling evan to the elevators, and fuck, cheryl doesn’t know how she knows but she does.

toni’s not okay. and cheryl wants to be there for her. 

“hey, is doctor topaz still here?” cheryl asks the reception nurse, who simply shrugs and doesn’t look up from her computer.

“saw her about ten minutes ago so i’d say she is.” she rasps out hoarsely. cheryl frowns, but says nothing and continues walking the hallways until she passes a supply closet-

and hears sniffling.

and somehow, again, without any explanation…cheryl just _knows._

she sighs and reaches for the handle of the door, opening it slowly before-

“toni?” she calls out softly. she hears something fall before there’s another loud sniff, and she scans the room quickly before she sees pink hair behind one of the shelves.

“toni…it’s me, it’s cheryl.” cheryl calls out once more, making her way around the shelf to see toni turning her back on cheryl as she haphazardly wipes at her face and clears her throat.

“uh…is there something you need, doctor blossom?” she asks hoarsely. cheryl sighs and steps closer, unsure of what to say or even do.

toni said she’s been on evan’s case for years, god only knows how hard it must’ve been to say goodbye to him for the final time…

“i…just wanted to check in on you.” cheryl whispers. toni scoffs and grabs some gauze before she finally turns to face cheryl, and cheryl can so very clearly see how red and puffy her eyes are, cheeks glistening with tears-

“i’m fine. you shouldn’t be here.” toni says stiffly, but before she can walk away, cheryl’s stepping in front of her and blocking her path, a sigh escaping her as she reaches out to grip toni’s shoulder.

“toni…you don’t need to do that with me. you don’t need to pretend.” cheryl tells her with a sad smile. 

toni’s bottom lip trembles and she lets out a shaky breath before she’s swallowing thickly and shaking her head.

“two years…i had that boy for two years and i w-watched that disease eat away at h-him…i thought he w-was gonna beat it, i r-really did! and n-now he’s gonna d-die and i can’t do anything-.” toni sobs, her whole body shaking and cheryl has no idea why-

but she pulls toni into her arms, holds her close and grips the back of her neck as toni buries her face into cheryl’s shoulder with another choked out cry of pain.

“shh…it’s okay, i’m here.” cheryl whispers, rubbing her back soothingly as toni grips the back of her labcoat like a lifeline.

cheryl has no idea how long they’re hugging for because everything just feels so _right_ but it must be at least a few minutes, because toni eventually detaches herself with a loud sniff before she looks up at cheryl with flushed cheeks and a sad smile.

“thank you.” she whispers.

and cheryl reaches up and brushes her tears away with her thumb before she smiles back just the same.

“you’re welcome.” she whispers back. toni hums softly, eyes fluttering closed at the feeling of cheryl’s fingers on her skin before she’s opening them once more and looking up at the girl before her in awe, her heart twisting and clenching-

she clears her throat and makes a beeline for the door, and cheryl stands there for a few moments, wishing more than anything that they could’ve stayed in that moment for just a little longer before she’s making her way back down to ortho to complete her rounds.

—

cheryl thought things were okay. she really thought that moment in the supply closet meant that things were okay, that she and toni can work together and that everything was fine.

but then the days go by.

and once again, toni requests betty’s service instead of hers. then archie’s…then reggie’s…then veronica’s, then betty’s again and archie’s again…

everyone else but her.

cheryl has no idea what happened, or why toni is doing this, but she’s being shuffled around from neuro to general to ortho to plastics to cardio and it’s frustrating, because she wants to talk to toni, but it doesn’t seem like toni wants to talk to her.

in fact, as the week goes by, it seems obvious that toni’s completely avoiding her because every time cheryl tries to catch her in the hallways, she strikes up conversation with someone else or walks in the opposite direction entirely.

and cheryl has no fucking idea why.

“ugh, working with kids sucks, they’re all so ‘i want jello cups’ like i control the food they get.” reggie groans, plopping down into his chair with a sigh as veronica steals an apple from his tray immediately.

“doctor topaz is amazing though, that pink hair…total badass. i mean, she’s a surgeon, she shouldn’t have pink hair!”

“told you guys that peds is hardcore! doctor topaz is hardcore!” betty says with a grin.

“whatever, she’s way too nice. i don’t like her.” reggie grumbles, rolling his eyes as cheryl chews on her bottom lip and tries her best to stay quiet while archie walks up to them looking a little concerned and sad, but otherwise still riding the high of his successful surgery last week, much to reggie's chagrin, but cheryl barely notices any of it.

she just wants to know why. why is toni avoiding her? she just wants answers…

and eventually…fate seems to intervene.

because as she finishes her shift for the night, cheryl throws her hair up into a ponytail and slings her bag over her shoulder with a heavy sigh as she slams the down button on the elevator, fatigue gripping her tightly as her mind drifts to the bubble bath waiting for her when she gets home. sixteen hour shifts are always so fucking draining-

the doors slowly slide open, and the second cheryl sees that flash of pink hair, she freezes.

toni’s staring down at her phone, but her gaze moves up as three people get off the elevator, leaving her on her own with cheryl standing right in front of her.

cheryl, who is about to enter this elevator…alone…with toni.

_fuck._

cheryl licks her lips, but steps into the elevator with a shaky exhale and hits the lobby button before she takes her stand in front of toni, avoiding eye contact completely as the doors slide shut and the elevator begins moving.

her heart is pounding in her chest so wildly right now, it’s a wonder she hasn’t had a heart attack yet.

it’s quiet for so long, cheryl feels her body tensing up with each passing second, and all cheryl wants to do is get the fuck off this elevator because the tears of frustration are building in her eyes, she just wants to know what she did _wrong…_

“cheryl-.”

“why are you avoiding me? what did i do, i…i don’t understand, what did i do?” cheryl croaks out, her tears falling before she can stop them as toni sighs loudly behind her, the sound of her foot stepping forward echoing out behind her.

“i can’t do it, cheryl.” toni’s voice whispers suddenly in her ear, causing a shiver to run down her spine at just how close toni is right now…

“do what?” cheryl breathes, leaning back slightly on instinct as toni’s fingers just graze up and down her forearm with a barely there touch, fuck, the way her whole body is shaking right now…

“be near you.” toni says softly. cheryl frowns, turns her head slightly and ignores the way toni inhales sharply at her actions.

“i…why?” she asks, and toni’s fingers suddenly close around her wrist before her lips gently brush against cheryl’s ear.

“because all i can think about is kissing you. and i don’t want to jeopardize your place in the program.” she whispers.

cheryl feels her heart leap out of her chest, beating into her throat, her body trembling, this overwhelming amount of lust pounding through her, she wants it too, god does she want it too-

“i don’t want to hurt you. in any way shape or form. it…it wasn’t just a one night stand, cheryl. not for me. i care about you.” toni says firmly, fingers squeezing her wrist, and cheryl officially loses control.

before she can stop herself, she’s turning around and pushing toni back against the elevator wall, lips attacking toni’s in a feverish kiss that has her palms sweating and her body trembling with excitement and anxiety.

toni’s fingers immediately reach up to pull on the hair tie keeping cheryl’s hair up, tugging on it almost roughly and causing cheryl to groan at the way her stomach lurches excitedly at the action before toni’s fingers are tangling into her hair and pulling her impossibly closer.

their bodies are practically melded together, cheryl’s fingers gently cupping toni’s face as their lips seem to slot together like puzzle pieces, full pink lips captured between cheryl’s own, fuck, she may have been drunk, but she _remembers_ how good this felt-

toni suddenly inhales sharply and pulls back, their foreheads resting against each other as they try to catch their breath, and toni lets out a sigh before she untangles her hand from cheryl’s hair and grips her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face with nothing but regret shining in her eyes. 

“we can’t. i won’t be the reason you lose your job. i’m sorry, cheryl.” she whispers, and before cheryl can protest, the elevator dings loudly and the doors open on the fourth floor and toni’s gone before cheryl can even comprehend what she just said or what the hell just happened.

she blinks back more tears, wants nothing more than to grab toni and bring her back here and kiss her until she loses breath as she stands there in frozen shock and doesn’t even register betty walking into the elevator until her cousin’s voice hits her ears.

“hey, i said hold the doors, jeez…are you heading home? i figured we can go to that bar across the street, the whyte wyrm or whatever? maybe have a drink-.”

“i slept with doctor topaz.” cheryl blurts out.

betty freezes, turns slowly on the spot with wide eyes and her finger hovering over the already lit lobby button as the doors slide shut with a loud thunk.

“i…what?” betty breathes, this look of panic immediately coming over her face as cheryl takes a deep breath in and looks to her cousin with her tears finally spilling over.

“it…it was the night before her first day here, i didn’t know she was gonna be the new peds doctor! we met at the bar and sh-she said she was new here and…one thing led to another-.”

“oh my god…oh my god, cheryl! this…this is bad, this is so bad!” betty cries out, reaching out and gripping cheryl’s arm as the redhead chokes on a sob and looks up at her in despair.

“i like her, betty. i like her so much and she likes me too, but we…we can’t because sh-she’s my boss and i d-don’t know what to do!” cheryl exclaims, hands flailing as betty grips them tightly to stop them and looks at her with wide eyes, thoughts clearly circling that genius brain of hers-

"are you on-call?" she says suddenly. cheryl shakes her head, and betty nods once resolutely.

“then here’s what we’re gonna do…we’re gonna go get a drink. and then…” betty trails off, lips pursed and eyes narrowed as cheryl swallows thickly and waits.

and waits.

“and th-then?” she eggs on, watching as betty chews on her bottom lip and lets out a nervous chuckle.

“we’re gonna have a drink! and then…we’re gonna have another one! and another…and you are gonna tell me _everything._ ” 

—

“another shot of tequila, please!” betty croaks out, lifting her hand to signal the bartender as cheryl clings to the bar top and desperately tries to stop the world from spinning.

“she was so-good, too! like...mind-blowingly good! i th-think i c-came like four times-."

"stoppppp, i s-so don't wanna hear about my cousin climaxing!" betty whines, but cheryl keeps going regardless.

"do you know h-how _hard_ it is to orgasm when you're that drunk?! and she d-did that to me! _four times!_ " cheryl complains, looking at her cousin with a pout before-

"i w-wanna do-it again with her!” cheryl slurs with a whine, hiccuping more than once as her head collapses onto the palm of her hand while her elbow just grazes the edge of the bar top, causing it to flop and her whole body to collapse forward.

“shit!”

betty catches her with a loud wheeze of laughter, clinging to her and gripping her arms as they lean against each other and try to catch their breath from cry laughing over cheryl’s near miss of hitting her head on the bar top. 

“i can’t believe you slept with an attending!” betty manages to get out through fits of laughter, her face turning bright red as cheryl groans and looks up at her with a pout.

“have you s-seen her!? she looks like a-runway model!” cheryl hiccups, and betty groans and flicks cheryl’s forehead suddenly.

“owwww, why!?”

“because you’re acting like you’re not a runway model too, bitch! you’re twenty six and you’re hot as shit!” betty groans, reaching for the two tequila shots the bartender puts in front of them and downing both before cheryl even gets the chance to reach for hers. 

“heyyyy, that was mine!” 

“oh, fuck off, i was an ugly duckling with braces, bad hair and acne for seventeen years of my life and i had to put up with all the boys wanting my gay cousin, so now, when i like a guy, i just assume he’s gonna reject me! i deserved that shot!” betty cries, tears springing to her eyes as she looks at cheryl, who suddenly finds herself sobering up a little at the sight of her cousin looking so distraught.

betty…has a point. growing up, betty and cheryl were inseparable, and betty was the first person cheryl came out to when she was fourteen because she was way too fucking terrified to tell her parents…betty had accepted her with open arms, and every time a guy at school or even college tried to hit on her, she’d send them on their way with an angry ‘she’s not interested!’ because she knew cheryl was too scared to do it herself for fear someone would figure her out. of course, when she did actually come out to her parents at the age of twenty one right before they went to medical school and was promptly kicked out and disowned, betty had also been the one to bring her back to her dorm until she could organize dorm housing for herself. 

betty has been the only family member cheryl’s ever been able to rely on, and it pained her to see how betty was teased and tortured in high school because she had braces and acne and was slightly overweight, and while cheryl will admit, she wasn’t the nicest girl in high school, she fought tooth and nail against anyone who dare spoke a word against her cousin.

but that was then and this is now. and now-

“cousin betty…you are absolutely beautiful inside and out, and any idiot who doesn’t-see that doesn’t d-deserve you! and if archie rejects you, then he doesn’t deserve you, either! you deserve someone who’s gonna s-see you as the most beautiful girl in the world!” cheryl manages to get out through slightly drunken tears, and to her surprise, betty’s expression softens immensely, a tear escaping the corner of her eye as she smiles sadly and suddenly cradles cheryl’s face in her hands. 

“oh cher-bear…you slept with doctor topaz.” she whispers. cheryl’s loving feelings for her cousin fade as she feels nothing but panic grip her once more, and she lets out a shaky breath and looks at betty at a loss for words.

“what do i do, betty? i like her so much…” she whispers back sadly. betty brushes her thumbs over cheryl’s cheeks before she suddenly leans forward and presses a sloppy kiss between her eyes, prompting cheryl to whine and push her away with a pout and a soft laugh. 

“you ignore her. because we worked too hard to get here, and you’re not about to jeopardize it for some girl! you will find someone else just as good who makes all your lady parts tingle and what not! and it’ll be someone you don’t work with! and i…i will do the same!” betty says resolutely, nodding once and look to her cousin with determination as cheryl hesitates and licks her dry lips, a protest about to leave her mouth-

“wow, what’s got you two so drunk like skunks?” veronica’s voice calls out suddenly to their right, and both girls turn with a groan before they’re reaching out and grabbing each of veronica’s hands and dragging her forward. 

“shots! now!”

“oh no no! as much as i want to, i think i’m gonna be in the mom role for the night, ladies!” veronica says with a laugh, shaking her head as betty and cheryl whine and tug on her hands once more.

“come on, ronnie!”

“yeah, we’re trying to forget our mistakes here!” cheryl says with a huff, pouting as veronica rolls her eyes and cocks an eyebrow at her.

“you yelling at doctor dickface was not a mistake, and if it wasn’t totally unfair because i got landed with scut for the day while you escaped unscathed, i would be cheering you on! but what i need you both to do is not kill me for who’s about to join us because you’re not the only ones who need to drink to forget your mistakes…” she murmurs, and cheryl stares at her in confusion before she looks behind veronica-

and sees archie andrews, with red puffy eyes and looking as pale as cheryl’s ever seen him.

_oh shit._

betty looks at veronica with wide eyes and is about to protest when veronica suddenly presses a finger to her lips to silence her with a quick shake of her head.

“don’t. he needs us. he was on cardio today with lopez and they were doing a routine angioplasty when the patient’s coronary artery dissected out of nowhere. it was shredding right before their eyes and archie…he froze.” veronica says in a low voice.

cheryl’s heart _drops._

“oh my god…the patient-.”

“yeah, she…she didn’t make it.” veronica says in a soft voice filled with sadness as she glances back at archie, who is still staring off into space with his eyes filled with tears of anguish and cheryl doesn’t even hesitate.

she looks to betty and nods towards the boy, and betty, despite her crush and despite her nervousness, jumps up and makes her way straight towards him before she’s wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him close.

and archie blinks in shock before he’s wrapping his arms around betty’s waist and burying his face into her shoulder, eyes squeezing shut with a whine as he does. 

“you always feel like a fucking rockstar in that operating room…until you lose one…even worse when you lose them because _you_ fucked up.” veronica says in a tone that has a shiver running up cheryl’s spine as she takes betty’s chair and looks at her morosely, and cheryl can’t help but think of evan as she blinks back more tears before she’s looking to the bartender with a sniff and a sad smile.

“four shots of tequila, please. and make them double shots.” 

—

archie ends up sleeping on their couch, and the four of them wake up with hangovers strong enough to kill a full grown whale, but somehow, they manage to pull themselves out of bed, drink some coffee and eat some protein heavy food to kill their throbbing headaches so they can head to the one place that gives them so much joy, but so much heartbreak at the same time.

and as the day goes on, and cheryl drives them all to said place in her impala with veronica, archie and betty in the backseat, she realizes that the four of them only really have each other to rely on through all of this. and despite the secret crushes…they have to be able to lean on each other for support.

so despite the fact that archie has a crush on her, cheryl acknowledges that he’s hurting, and as soon as he’s jumping out of her car and veronica and betty are skipping ahead, she’s reaching out and gripping the sleeve of archie’s shirt to stop him, and he’s turning to look at her with bloodshot eyes filled with confusion before she’s wrapping him up in her arms in a hug. 

“i’m sorry, archie. i know how much it hurts, but you’ve gotta stay strong, okay?” she whispers into his ear, sighing when he squeezes her tightly with a whine and buries his face into her hair with a choked out sob.

“she’s d-dead because of me, cheryl.” he croaks out in a whisper, clutching her even tighter until cheryl finally manages to pull herself away to take archie’s face into her hands, smiling at him as best as she can.

“a lot of people are going to die on our watch, archie. some people can’t be saved and it’s not our fault if that’s the case. but we can’t beat ourselves up over it…we just have to remember the people we _do_ save…and how much bigger that number is compared to the ones we lose.” 

archie lets out a shaky breath before he’s looking at cheryl with something akin to defeat, and cheryl thinks it might not just be defeat over losing a patient…

"my dad...he had heart problems. three open heart surgeries by the time i was seven. and the crazy thing is...he died when i was seventeen in a car accident." archie says with a scoff, and cheryl's heart drops in anguish.

oh no...no, no, he was on _cardio_...

"oh, arch..." she whispers. tears quickly fall down archie's cheeks as he looks up at her in despair.

"some idiot ran him over while he was trying to help someone on the side of the road whose car had broken down...and they told me that his heart just failed on him from the shock of it...that if he had a healthy heart, he would've lived. w-watching...w-watching that woman's heart just...tear to pieces right in front of me...and now she's dead because of me-."

"archie, you can't blame yourself for freezing up over something like that, of course it was going to bring up memories of your father. oh, archie, i'm so sorry..." cheryl breathes, quickly wiping away his tears and wrapping him in her arms once more before cradling his face in her hands again.

“s'okay…” he mumbles, eyes cast downward as cheryl lets out a heavy sigh and wishes more than anything that she could comfort him more, but how the hell is she supposed to? 

_oh, of course..._

"i lost my twin brother when i was eight." she croaks out. archie looks at her in surprise, eyes wide as cheryl raises her voice a little to speak over the sound of a motorbike pulling up behind them.

"he hit his head while we were playing one day and was bleeding for hours. we went to bed and...he never woke up. we can't blame ourselves for people dying, archie. it just... _happens._ " cheryl says softly, smiling at him as best as she can and brushing away more tears as he grips her waist and gives it a gentle squeeze as if to sympathize with her pain, and-

she hears someone suddenly clear their throat behind them, and she detaches herself from archie and spins around to see-

_oh fuck._

toni topaz is swinging her foot off her motorbike, a leather jacket over her shoulders and a look of murder on her face as she tucks her helmet under her arm and looks at archie and cheryl hugging each other like they’ve just committed a personal crime against her. 

the way cheryl rips herself out of archie’s grip is almost violent as toni clenches her jaw and simply gives archie a tight smile.

“doctor blossom…a word.” she says simply, still staring at archie with that fake smile. cheryl chews on the inside of her cheek before she nods, and archie squeezes her arm before he’s making his way into the hospital with his head down as cheryl looks at toni anxiously.

“toni, i-.”

“you shouldn’t date your co-workers, cheryl. considering the fact he killed someone yesterday, you shouldn’t be any more of a distraction to him before he kills someone else.” toni all but hisses, and before cheryl can even process what she’s just said, for the hundredth time in a goddamn row, toni topaz walks away from her, leaving her confused and shocked and more than anything-

beyond pissed off.


	3. we're just as human as the people we're operating on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLOOOOO. here is the next update for the grey's anatomy au, which I guess is what we're calling it now heh. fair warning, the next chapter (chapter 4) is barely written because, if you follow me on twitter, you'll know I've got some personal issues going on at the moment and I've been working on top of that so I've barely had time to write, which means the next chapter after this one might take a while to come out. I apologize sincerely for that guys, and I'll do my best to spend this week writing! I really enjoy writing this fic and I hope you guys are enjoying reading it!
> 
> that said, as always, leave a comment letting me know what you think of this one, or you can send me a tweet/message on twitter at @endofdaysforme. bye for now!

once again, cheryl is faced with toni topaz ignoring her entire existence.

and once again, cheryl finds herself attempting to form some kind of contact with her, because she wants to explain what toni saw, wants to explain to her that there’s no chance in hell of anything ever happening between herself and archie, but toni’s avoiding her.

and frankly, after four days of failed attempts, cheryl decides she’s had enough.

if toni is going to be a child and isn’t going to give her a chance to explain, then why the hell should she bother herself? why should she work so tirelessly to get her attention when toni clearly doesn’t want to give it to her? 

so, after four days of failed attempts…she stops bothering. 

she stops trying to catch toni in the hallways, stops trying to find her during her breaks, she just…stops.

and yes, she feels fucking miserable because now it’s been over a week since she last spoke a word to toni, but she tries her best to push through and tries her best to move on. 

fuck toni topaz. she’s immature, she’s rude, she’s-

“doctor blossom, you’re with doctor topaz today, don’t screw it up!” doctor chipping’s voice pulls cheryl right out of her thoughts, and as his words actually begin to process in her brain, she finds herself jumping up, her mouth already dropping open to protest when betty suddenly grips her elbow and squeezes it to stop her.

“don’t! you’ve already protested working with her once before, if you do it again, he’ll get suspicious!” she hisses into her ear as quietly as possible. cheryl purses her lips, but digs her nails into the palms of her hands to stop herself from screaming as doctor chipping continues listing off interns and who they're assigned to for the day. 

as soon as he leaves, betty’s gripping cheryl’s elbow tighter and dragging her back to their lockers, quickly glancing around to make sure no one is listening before she leans into cheryl anxiously.

“do you think she requested your service?” she asks nervously, and cheryl scoffs and opens her locker angrily to grab her stethoscope. 

“as if, she hates my guts! i can’t believe i’m being forced to work with her, this is such bullshit-.”

“well, maybe it’ll actually give you a chance to clear the air with her now!” betty says positively, prompting cheryl to scoff and shake her head. 

“at this point, i don’t want to clear _anything_ with her. if she’s going to be this immature and rude then i don’t want anything to do with her!” cheryl hisses angrily, and betty’s about to protest when-

“anything to do with who?” 

cheryl spins around to see archie looking at them in confusion, and cheryl’s eyes widen before betty’s gripping her elbow and dragging her once again to the entrance.

“butt out, archie! private conversation!” she all but growls as they both make their exit. archie looks up at veronica, who simply shrugs as she hoops her stethoscope over her neck and looks up at archie with a nod.

“who are you with today?”

“golightly.” archie says hoarsely, opening his locker as veronica nods once more with a chuckle.

“oh yeah, saw him on the surgical board this morning, looks like you’re getting in on a liver transplant today!” she says with excitement, and once again, for the fifth time this week, archie smiles at her and shakes his head.

“i’ll be in the gallery. i’m excited to see how it’s done.” he says simply, and before veronica can say anything, he’s walking away, and she’s watching him do so with a frown.

all week since his patient died from complications with her heart surgery, archie has been watching from the gallery and refusing to scrub in, and if the attendings force him to enter the operating room, he keeps to himself at the side, refusing to touch a single tool or to help at all. veronica’s heard the attendings talking about it, he’s looking at getting kicked off the program, and veronica doesn’t think he deserves that, but fuck, he’s a _surgical_ intern…he can’t be one if he won’t perform surgery itself…

a loud bang behind her causes her to jump, and the smell of coffee invades her senses before reggie mantle’s voice echoes in her ear.

“don’t worry about bambi, he’ll get over it. on call room at two?” he murmurs, prompting veronica to spin around and glare at him angrily for insulting archie before he’s grinning cockily and, well…

veronica can never say no to a cocky grin and an on call room.

—

“would you stop?!”

cheryl glares at her cousin as she ceases tapping her foot on the elevator floor beneath her, and betty sighs and grips her hand, giving it a tight squeeze before also giving her a reassuring smile.

“you’re gonna be fine. everything is gonna be fine! you just-.”

“have to work with the woman i slept with who is now avoiding me like the plague, sure!” cheryl growls, scoffing in disbelief and tapping her foot once more as betty rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

“just be professional, and i’m sure doctor topaz will be too-.”

the doors swing open, and cheryl stares at the bustling people around the peds floor before her with a sense of dread.

she can’t do this…working with toni is going to be a nightmare, she can already feel it, fuck…

“go!”

“i don’t want to!”

“cheryl, please, you can’t stay on this elevator forever!”

“oh yeah? watch me!”

“i-.”

“doctor blossom!”

cheryl gasps and spins around at the sound of her name, and of course, toni is standing right there, looking at her with a frown and cold eyes as she holds out a chart to her and nods her forward.

“i don’t have all day, move it. don’t you have somewhere else to be, doctor cooper?” she deadpans, and cheryl exchanges one last pitiful look with her cousin before she’s following toni off the elevator and onto the peds floor. 

“read the chart, memorize it. you have ten minutes while i talk with chief jones. get to it, blossom.” toni says firmly, and cheryl doesn’t even bother saying anything, just watches her go with a mixture of anger and regret before she looks down at the patient’s chart and gets to work. 

she reads the chart obsessively over and over again, refusing to think about toni or her situation for even a second until the woman herself is walking around the corner back towards her with a clenched jaw and a stony look in her eyes.

“room three-seventeen. follow me.” she says simply, and cheryl, feeling like a fucking student that’s just been caught teepeeing the school building, follows after her until they reach their patient’s room. 

toni opens the door and walks right in, her stony expression disappearing in a flash as she smiles at a woman in the bed in the middle of the room.

“good morning, nastasha!”

“morning, doctor topaz!” the patient says with a tired smile, cheryl taking in her sunken eyes as toni turns to face her expectantly.

“doctor blossom, present, please.” 

“natasha ross, twenty seven years old and thirty two weeks pregnant. her obstetrician performed a fetal echocardiograph after concerns were raised about the baby’s heart rate at her last ultrasound. miss ross’s baby is unfortunately suffering from severe tachycardia-.”

“our patient didn’t go to medical school for four years, doctor blossom. in english, please.” toni says suddenly, causing cheryl’s cheeks to flush as she turns to natasha, who looks at her in complete bewilderment of anything she’s saying.

“i…uh, your…your baby’s heart is beating too fast.” she mumbles, watching as natasha’s eyes light up with recognition and she lets out a chuckle. 

“thank you, _that_ i can understand.”

“mmm…what would you recommend we do next, doctor blossom?” toni says firmly, smiling at natasha and avoiding eye contact with cheryl completely as the redhead frowns and tries to come up with a game plan.

“ummm…we should start her on digoxin, it’ll help slow the heart rate down of the baby, but doing so may also cause miss ross’s normal heart rate to slow too, so we should continue monitoring the baby’s heart rate, as well as miss ross’s hourly, maybe even every thirty minutes, just to be safe.” cheryl says with slight hesitation, watching as toni cocks an eyebrow and finally… _finally_ turns to look at her.

“are you asking me, or telling me?” she demands.

and cheryl gives it right back with a glare and a clench of her jaw before she nods, trying her best not to punch her lights out for even questioning her.

“i’m _telling_ you.” she says firmly. toni purses her lips, but nods once in approval, and she’s about to say something when natasha suddenly reaches out and grips her arm.

“if my heart rate slows down too much…will i die? i…i can’t die, doctor topaz, my baby already lost his father two months into this pregnancy, he can’t lose me, too.” she asks hoarsely, eyes filled with concern and tears of sadness as toni gives her a reassuring smile and squeezes her wrist gently.

“we’ll be monitoring you closely, we won’t let it come to that. you’re in safe hands, natasha, i promise.” she says softly. natasha smiles and settles back into her pillows with a shaky breath and closes her eyes, caressing her stomach anxiously, and cheryl sighs before she looks to toni, who motions to her to follow her outside, the both of them exiting the room and leaving natasha to rest.

“check her vitals every half an hour, her heart rate even dips remotely close to sixty five beats, you page me immediately, understood?” toni murmurs, leaning in close to her and causing cheryl to inhale sharply at the scent of her perfume before she forces herself to focus on the task at hand.

“and if the baby’s heart rate doesn’t slow, either?” she asks, frowning and glancing back at natasha as toni lets out a deep sigh and simply shakes her head.

“just…page me if you get concerned. doesn’t matter if you think it’s stupid or something small, you page me.” she says firmly. cheryl nods once more, looks to the pink haired doctor as she purses her lips and looks at cheryl with almost narrowed eyes.

and cheryl just can’t help herself.

“okay…toni, i-.” she starts, but toni’s eyes widen before she’s shaking her head and backing away.

“not now, cheryl.” she says simply, walking away before cheryl can even protest once again, but cheryl, as determined as ever, steps forward and reaches out to grip her hand, just barely grazing the sleeve of her lab coat. 

“would you just-.”

“i said not now!” toni semi-yells, glaring back at her angrily and drawing the attention of a few nurses nearby as cheryl watches her stomp off in complete and utter shock at the way toni just yelled at her.

_did that seriously just happen?_

—

cheryl all but throws her tray down onto the cafeteria table with a growl, ignoring the way veronica looks up at her in surprise and the way josie cocks an eyebrow with a smirk as she collapses into her chair at their table and shakes her head angrily.

“doctor topaz is a bitch!” she hisses, taking a bite out of her sandwich viciously as veronica chuckles and grins at her.

“really? i think she’s a badass-.”

“she’s not! she’s rude and immature and she’s an ass, nothing ‘bad’ about her!” cheryl snaps, sinking into her seat with murder written all over her face as veronica raises her hands in surrender while reggie falls into the seat beside her lazily.

“okay, she kicks puppies and is a dick to homeless people, we hate her.” she says with a confirming nod. cheryl rolls her eyes at her remark, but says nothing as betty joins them, quickly followed by archie, who falls into his seat with a tired smile and looks around at everyone expectantly.

“so, how’s everyone’s day been?” he asks. josie’s about to reply when-

“great, archiekins! now…you gonna scrub in on golightly’s transplant?” veronica says before anyone else can get a word in, and archie looks at her in surprise and blinks once before he simply shrugs and takes a sip of his soda.

“i think he’s got enough hands on deck.” he says simply. cheryl frowns, looks to betty, who also looks confused as veronica sighs, and she’s about to say something when reggie suddenly scoffs and shakes his head with what looks like anger.

“dude, you killed a patient, get over it! she won’t be the last one that croaks under your watch, pick up a damn scalpel and cut someone open already!” he yells, all four women at the table looking at him in complete shock as archie does the same before-

he jumps up from his chair, jaw clenched and eyes blazing with anger before he stomps off without another word, and veronica watches him go in despair as josie looks to reggie in disbelief.

“anyone ever tell you you’re a complete and utter jerk?” 

“oh come on, it’s been a week and he hasn’t even touched a patient! he’s here to be a surgeon, not cry over…fucking spilt milk!” reggie growls, throwing his packet of chips on top of his tray with a roll of his eyes.

“a patient dying is not spilt milk, reggie! stop being a dick!” betty says angrily, jumping up from her chair and stalking off after archie before any of them can say anything, and cheryl blinks once in surprise, looks at josie on confusion and gets the same sentiment thrown back at her expression wise before josie’s pager goes off at the same time cheryl’s timer on her phone goes off.

“damn…” josie murmurs before she’s launching out of her chair and rushing out of the cafeteria on what cheryl has no doubt is an emergency while she sighs and picks up both their trays to take to the bin, because she wants to tell veronica about archie’s father, but she knows it’s not a good idea to do so.

it’s archie’s business, not hers.

“i gotta go, gotta get my patient’s vitals. uhh…see you guys later.” she says with an awkward chuckle, watching how veronica stares at reggie coldly while the man continues to eat his chips obliviously, and as soon as cheryl is gone, veronica’s leaning in closer to him with a huff.

“is there a reason why you act like such a dick to everyone else but when you’re with me, you’re actually halfway decent?” she grumbles, glaring at him as he looks at her in surprise before he simply shrugs. 

“everyone else pisses me off. you don’t.” he says nonchalantly. 

“yeah, well, it’s hard to convince everyone you’re a decent guy when you act like…that!” veronica exclaims, sighing as reggie’s eyes widen before he swallows his mouthful of chips and cocks an eyebrow.

“why do you need to convince anyone of anything? we’re just fucking, it’s not like we’re a couple.” he scoffs.

it’s quiet for a few moments as veronica stares at him in disbelief before-

“never mind. you really are a dick.” she hisses, and reggie barely gets a word in as veronica jumps up and stalks off, all but throwing her tray on top of one of the bins as she does.

—

“you paged?” 

toni walks in with a clear of her throat as cheryl looks up at her with a frown of concern, pulling her stethoscope from her ears and motioning toni forward quickly.

“it might be nothing, but you told me to page you for even the smallest things-.”

“it’s okay, what’s the issue?” toni asks immediately, reaching for natasha’s chart as the woman herself looks up at them both anxiously as cheryl sighs.

“her heart rate’s down to sixty eight beats per minute, half an hour ago it was at seventy three. as for the baby’s heart rate…still at one seventy two…” cheryl murmurs, and toni’s frown only deepens as she looks up at cheryl with wide eyes. 

“what does that mean? is it bad?” natasha asks in a panic, looking at toni, who sighs and purses her lips before reaching for natasha’s hand to reassure her.

“it’s not bad but…it’s not great. the medication isn’t working, the baby’s heart rate isn’t slowing down and yours keeps dropping. we’ll keep monitoring you and pray that his heart rate slows, but if it doesn’t…we’re looking at a possible emergency c-section.” toni says softly. natasha’s eyes widen before tears well in her eyes and she chokes on a sob.

“b-but…he’s only thirty two weeks-.”

“let’s just pray it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, he’ll be okay. babies have survived coming out of the womb at even twenty-five weeks, natasha. we obviously want to keep him in there as long as possible, but if it puts both your lives at risk…it’s better to get him out as soon as possible. like i said, we’ll keep an eye on you both, okay?” toni reassures her. tears fall from the corners of natasha’s eyes as she swallows thickly before she nods slowly.

“o-okay…doctor topaz, please…keep him in there as long as you can.” she begs, and toni squeezes her hand and offers her a small smile.

“i’ll try my best.” toni’s smile quickly fades as she looks up at cheryl before she’s turning and exiting the room, and in that moment, at the sight of how toni’s smile just _drops_ the second she looks at her…

something in her _snaps._

“excuse me, miss ross…” she murmurs before she’s rushing out of the room after toni, who makes her way to the staircase, and cheryl can’t help but scoff at the irony of it as she runs after her and throws the door open just as it closes behind the pink haired doctor.

“you know, you can’t keep avoiding me forever!” cheryl yells, stomping up the stairs after her as toni comes to a sudden stop and turns to look at her in surprise that quickly turns to exasperation.

“not now, cheryl-.”

“no! you don’t get to keep running from me, it’s been a week!” cheryl snaps angrily, coming to a stop in front of her, and toni grips the railing before she looks at cheryl with her brown eyes blazing in rage.

“what do you want from me?!” she hisses, knuckles turning white from how hard she’s clutching the railing, but cheryl doesn’t back down.

she's done walking around on eggshells.

“i want you to listen! i want you to let me explain!” she exclaims.

“explain what?! you’re dating archie now, good for you!” toni barks, her whole body tensing as she goes to make her way up the stairs, but cheryl’s right behind her, refusing to give up, because toni's words make her scoff in disbelief.

“toni, for god’s sake, if you stopped and gave me a second to explain what you saw-.” 

“i don’t have time for this-.” 

cheryl grabs her wrist, pulls her and forces her to turn before the words are escaping her harshly.

“i’m gay!”

toni freezes, her eyes widening and the anger dissipating almost immediately, replaced with shock as cheryl scoffs in disbelief again and tries to stop her whole body from trembling in her own anger at just how disrespectful toni has been to her this last week.

“yeah! so me and archie? definitely not a thing, and it will never _be_ a thing! i was comforting him because a patient died on _his_ table and because he’s my friend! and you know what? even if i was straight and i was dating him, who the _hell_ do you think you are to ignore me and be upset at me for it? _you’re_ the one who said we can’t see each other! _you’re_ the one who pulled away! _you’re_ the one who came to the decision to stay away from me without even consulting me first!” cheryl exclaims, pointing a harsh finger right into toni’s chest as the woman stares at her with wide eyes and a look of panic.

“cheryl, i…your job-.”

“exactly, _my_ job, so _my_ decision! but you took that from me and decided for us!” cheryl hisses, nails digging into her palm in rage as toni shakes her head quickly. 

“cheryl, there’s no decision to make! i’m not worth you losing your position in the program-.”

“maybe to me you were!” cheryl cries out without even meaning to, and for fuck’s sake, she can feel the tears welling in her eyes as she looks at toni in despair, because even though the words escaped her out of nowhere, cheryl can’t help but feel the truth of them deep within her heart. 

she wanted to try. she wanted to be normal for once and go on a date with a girl and get to know her and not have her stare at cheryl like she’s grown a second head whenever she rambles about medicine like all her previous dates have…she wanted to go on a date and have it end spectacularly instead of with said date rushing off, never to be heard from again…

cheryl had such a good time that night at the bar with toni, even if she can’t remember half of it, and finding out that toni was a doctor as well? it just made her more attractive to her. she finally found someone who was her equal, someone who would likely talk medicine back to her over a candlelit dinner, someone who wouldn’t run off at the end of a date, someone who understands her, and…they can’t be together. because toni decided. yes, she's her boss, and yes, it complicates things, but this isn't her decision only to make.

_toni_ decided…and cheryl had no say.

“maybe to me you were but…not anymore. not after how you’ve behaved this past week, not after the way you keep walking away without giving me the goddamn chance to say how i feel or make a choice in this! so i’m putting my foot down, and i’m telling my choice! you want nothing to do with me? fine! then i want nothing to do with you, either!” 

and finally, cheryl gets the chance to give toni a taste of her own medicine, because she spins on her heel and makes her way back down the stairs and through the door, ignoring how the pink haired doctor calls out to her with her heart racing and a single tear falling down her face and a single decision reverberating through her mind.

that she’s officially _done_ with toni topaz.

—

“so…what’s going on with you and cheryl?” veronica asks with a smirk as she slams her locker shut, and she bites back a laugh at the way betty squirms uncomfortably before she’s shaking her head with a hum.

“uhhh, nothing! nothing, we’re just-it’s-.”

“hey, i don’t mind being kept out of the loop! i know you two will always be closer to each other than you are with me, but that won’t stop me from making sure you’re both at least okay.” veronica says softly and very, very genuinely, prompting betty to smile as she falls onto the bench next to their lockers and looks at veronica sadly. 

“i’m sorry, v…i promise we’re fine, we’re just…i don’t know, going through it.” she sighs, collapsing down onto the bench on her back as veronica pats her leg and rubs it soothingly. 

“seems like it! well, i’m here if you ever need to talk.” she says firmly, smiling as betty groans and looks at her with a grin.

“when aren’t you?” she teases, and veronica hums in approval, thinking back to the many boyfriends and girlfriends she had to comfort both betty and cheryl through during their years in college…

_damn, i really am a good friend, aren’t i?_

“mmm, true!” they share a laugh together before the sound of the door of the entrance to the locker room opening echoes out, and veronica turns just as archie enters, a frown on his face that quickly disappears when he sees his two friends in front of him.

“hey…everything okay?” he asks with concern, and veronica cocks an eyebrow and looks to betty before she’s jumping up with a grin.

“nope! i was just leaving! see ya, b!” she calls out, and before betty can protest, veronica’s leaving the locker room, leaving her alone with archie, who watches veronica go with a shake of his head and a chuckle. 

“she’s a character, that veronica lodge.” he teases, turning to look at betty, who stares in awe at the way his dimples cut into his cheeks when he smiles and the way his red hair is haphazard but somehow still so cute-

oh no.

“uh, y-yeah!” betty manages to get out, jumping off the bench and opening her locker to retrieve her lab coat and her stethoscope. she lets out a sigh before she peeks over her locker door to look at archie sadly.

"archie, about what reggie said-."

"he's a prick. not your fault, betty." he says simply, nodding once at her before he reaches for the hem of his scrubs and lifts-

_fuck, fuck, fuck-_

betty hides her face into her locker again, barely catches a glimpse of six pack abs and smooth skin before she’s covering it from view with flushed cheeks and a clenching stomach, and she grips the metal of her locker with a shaky exhale, a groan resting in the back of her throat-

“hey, so…i don’t know what it means, but last week, cheryl hugged me and doctor topaz looked really pissed off about it, and then cheryl was annoyed that she had to work with doctor topaz this morning…you don’t think doctor topaz like, has the hots for cheryl or something, do you?” archie says with a chuckle.

betty feels her heart _drop,_ and all thoughts of the fact that archie is shirtless right now leaves her mind as she looks at him with wide eyes and nothing but panic.

“wh-what? i…that’s-i-uh…i gotta go!” she squeaks, slamming her locker shut and leaving a very confused and half naked archie behind. 

—

“what happened?!” toni demands as soon as she walks into the room, and cheryl tries to calm her racing heart as natasha whines and grips her arms in panic, clutching her stomach in pain with the other hand as she does.

“she’s experiencing pain and the baby’s heart rate is above one eighty, it’s too dangerous to keep him in there!” cheryl cries out, looking down at natasha with wide eyes as she groans and looks at toni with tears in her eyes and sweat on her forehead. toni checks the fetal heart rate monitor with wide eyes before-

“dammit! okay, natasha, the baby’s heart rate is still too fast and it’s only climbing, which means the only thing this medicine is doing is slowing _your_ heart rate down significantly! we need to get the baby out!” toni says quickly, looking straight into natasha’s eyes as the woman screams in panic and shakes her head furiously.

“what?! n-no, he’s only thirty two weeks! he c-can’t c-come out yet!” natasha cries, her bottom lip trembling as she clutches her stomach, and toni grips her hands and squeezes them to get her to look up at her properly.

“if we keep him in there, he’s going to die! he has a much better chance of survival coming out at thirty two weeks than he does if he stays where he is, okay?” toni says calmly, and cheryl can feel her own body shaking almost violently at the idea of this woman losing her child as she looks up at toni and chokes on a sob. 

“please…please, my baby, save my baby-i already lost his father-.”

“i’m gonna save the both of you, but i can’t do that if we stay here, okay? we need to do this surgery now, natasha.” toni says softly, still gripping natasha’s arms as the woman hesitates before she whines and nods, giving toni permission.

and toni jumps into action the millisecond she sees that nod, running to the entrance to natasha’s room and summoning a few nurses before returning to her bed.

“alright, let’s get her to the O.R., now! call them and tell them we’re on our way!” toni yells at cheryl as she quickly pulls away the electrical wires on natasha’s stomach and detaches her iv before she pulls the railings of the bed up, three nurses rushing over as well to help her as they wheel natasha’s bed out quickly. cheryl runs straight for the phone and hits the button that puts her through to the operating room.

they answer barely a second after the first ring.

“operating rooms service, how can we help?”

“this is doctor cheryl blossom on the pediatric floor, i have doctor antoinette topaz on route with a patient who needs an emergency c-section, her baby is tachycardic! please tell me you have a O.R. available?!” cheryl says quickly.

“operating room three is available!”

“amazing, book it for doctor topaz, we’ll be there in five! thank you!” cheryl breathes, hanging up the phone before she’s rushing out of the room and running down the hallway after them. the door is just about to close, and cheryl’s about to call out-

a hand flies out and stops the door from shutting, and it opens once more to reveal toni looking at cheryl with relief before she’s waving her forward quickly. cheryl ignores the way her heart skips a beat at the action and instead runs straight in, gripping the railing of natasha’s bed as the woman herself continues to look up at toni in panic. 

“O.R. three is available!” cheryl pants, and toni nods as natasha lets out a whine and grips toni’s hand.

“you have to promise me everything will be okay!” she cries, tears falling down her cheeks as the elevator begins pulling them up towards the operating room floor.

“i’m going to do everything i can, natasha, i promise! i need you to stay calm for me, alright? if you panic, the baby panics, so take a few deep breaths! you trust me, right?” toni says with a smile, and natasha’s bottom lip trembles as she nods slowly.

“y-yes!”

“then trust me and follow my advice, okay? deep breaths, not just for you but for your baby boy!” toni says softly, but cheryl can see how her foot is tapping the floor anxiously as the elevator doors spring open and cheryl’s gripping the railing of natasha’s bed to help them wheel her to operating room three. 

“get her prepped, i want her under in five! cheryl, scrub in!” toni calls out, and cheryl’s about to leave when natasha suddenly cries out louder.

“wait! w-will doctor b-blossom be there?” natasha whimpers, looking up at toni as they wheel her into the operating room, and cheryl hesitates before she disobeys toni’s orders and follows them inside, staying right by natasha’s side as they bring her to a stop in the middle of the room beside the operating table. 

“i’m gonna be right by doctor topaz’s side, miss ross, don’t you worry!” cheryl reassures her with a smile, and natasha cries out in panic as at least five scrub nurses surround her.

“am i g-gonna be okay? is the b-baby-.”

“doctor topaz is one of the best pediatric surgeons in the country, miss ross, she’s going to do everything she can to save you both! you can trust her, i promise!” cheryl tells her with another smile, and cheryl can feel toni’s eyes on her at the entrance to the operating room as natasha closes her eyes and nods.

“o-okay…”

“doctor topaz and i have to go scrub in, but we’re gonna be right by your side before they put you under anesthetic, okay? just keep breathing for us.” cheryl says softly, and natasha nods again before cheryl rushes towards the door and follows toni through the second one right beside it that leads to the scrub-in area.

toni reaches into her lab coat and pulls out a scrub cap with little tiny snakes all over it that’s black while the snakes are green before she takes her lab coat off, and cheryl simply reaches for one of the normal blue ones in the cabinet as they both quickly and quietly pull their hair up into buns before tying the scrub caps over their heads. 

“the second i get that baby out, i need you to carry him over to the bed in the corner there, the one the nurses are setting up right now.” toni says, nodding towards the corner of the operating room where the nurses are setting up a small bed while a bunch of other nurses lift natasha off her bed and onto the operating table.

“okay, and then?” cheryl says in a panic, looking to toni as she reaches for a surgical mask and places it over her mouth while cheryl follows suit and begins tying it behind her neck.

“if he comes out crying, then you carry him over there and clean him up while i make sure natasha is okay, then i’ll come over and assess…if he’s not crying…you carry him over, then come stay with natasha and make sure everything’s okay before you come and assist me, because we may need to open the baby’s chest so we can shock his heart back to a normal rhythm.” toni says calmly as she grabs a bar of surgical soap and wets it before she begins scrubbing her hands and forearms while cheryl tries her best not to fucking vomit inside her surgical mask.

“…that baby better fucking come out crying.” cheryl breathes, reaching for a bar of soap herself before she begins scrubbing her hands and forearms. toni laughs lightly and looks up at her for a beat of a moment, the both of them locking eyes and smiling behind their masks as they quickly finish scrubbing their arms.

“deep breaths, cheryl. you can do this.” toni whispers, and cheryl lets out a shaky breath before she follows toni through the door to the right into the operating room, toni slamming the green button to open the door with her elbow before she does. 

gowns are immediately thrown over their bodies before gloves are being opened for them to put their hands into, which they do quickly and thoroughly, and cheryl checks for any holes or air bubbles in her gloves before she follows toni straight to natasha’s bedside.

“deep breaths, natasha…when you wake up, you’ll be a mother.” toni says softly, looking down at the woman with a wink as she smiles up at toni before an anesthetic mask is placed over her face.

she’s out like a light within twenty seconds while the scrub nurses clean the area of where her incision will be quickly but thoroughly. it’s quiet for a few moments as the anesthetist confirms natasha is out cold before he looks at her heart rate monitor and looks to toni with a nod.

toni lets out a deep breath and cranes her neck before she nods to everyone in the room. 

“alright, ladies and gentlemen, time to bring your A game! lyssa, ten blade!” toni says firmly, and cheryl watches in fascination and awe as the scrub nurse hands toni a scalpel-

and the woman gets to work.

cheryl watches in utter worship and wonder, and toni has natasha open and is pulling her small three pound baby straight out of her uterus in less than seven minutes, but when cheryl doesn’t hear the sound of loud crying a good ten seconds after that baby is out, she feels her heart completely stop.

_fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-_

“cheryl, take him to the corner!” toni says firmly and loudly, and cheryl, despite her panic and complete and utter fear, focuses on her four years of training and her last nine months as an intern and sticks her hands out for the nurse to place the baby into them. 

she carries natasha’s baby straight to the corner and rests him on the table, and as soon as she does, the scrub nurses begin cleaning him and cheryl runs straight back to toni, who looks up at her with her hands still holding the instruments keeping natasha’s body open.

“hold these!” toni says urgently, and cheryl does as she’s told, taking over as toni rushes over to natasha’s baby and gets to work.

“dammit, his heart rate is still too fast! okay, we need to cut him open, page doctor fox! tell them i need him urgently, i’m not a goddamn pediatric heart surgeon, but he sure as shit is!” toni demands, and cheryl takes a deep breath in and looks down at natasha’s open stomach before suddenly-

natasha’s heart rate monitor begins beeping loudly, cheryl’s gaze moving up to it in shock and confusion-

“doctor topaz, her bp is dropping!” the anesthetist says as cheryl looks down at her incision in panic.

“what?! why is her bp dropping?! i-dammit, i can’t…cheryl, tell me what you see!” toni cries out, and cheryl ducks down to get a look inside, her panic building the longer she hears that beeping go on for, oh god, she’s gonna die, she’s gonna fucking die-

“i…i can’t see anything out of the ordinary! i-wait…” cheryl pulls back a bit on the wound to expose more of her stomach and notices a pocket in the corner above her stomach where blood is building, oh _fuck-_

“there’s blood, there’s a lot of blood here! lyssa, suction!” cheryl cries out, holding a hand out for the scrub nurse to place a suction machine into them. 

“where?!” toni calls out.

“i…i can’t tell, i c-can’t see, the incision is too small!” cheryl screams in panic, placing the suction where she sees the most blood and trying her best not to vomit as more blood just pools regardless-

she’s bleeding too much, far too much, some of it is starting to spill over onto the ground, fuck, fuck, fuck-

“dammit, we have to cut her open! someone page golightly immediately! someone get to the phone and call the blood bank, get me two units of o-neg! cheryl, i need you to run, i need you to meet them halfway and get the blood here, they always walk because of their stupid ‘no running with blood bags in your hands’ policy and i need that blood asap!” toni demands loudly, but cheryl feels her heart clench and finds herself shaking her head as she looks up at toni with tears in her eyes.

“i promised her i’d stay!” she cries out, causing toni to look up at her with wide eyes in shock.

“if you stay, she dies! cheryl-.” 

before toni has the chance to finish her sentence, the door to the operating room slams open and another doctor cheryl’s never met before runs in holding a mask over his face.

“you paged?!” he pants out towards toni, who lets out a cry of relief.

“thank god! doctor fox, i have a thirty two weeker, he’s tachycardic and digoxin did nothing to bring his heart rate down!”

“on it, i’ll scrub in!” doctor fox says before he’s rushing into the scrub-in area, and cheryl’s ears are fucking buzzing, her heart pounding so harshly against her chest as she continues suctioning, that beeping still going as blood continues to just spatter onto the floor-

time seems to just slow down.

and suddenly…it picks back up.

she has no idea how much time has passed, her eyes focused only on suctioning as much blood as she can before a hand grips her wrist and her head is snapping up to meet brown eyes that look oh so familiar-

“i’ve got her…go, please!” toni begs urgently, and cheryl chews on the inside of her cheek before she steps back and allows toni to take over, and as soon as the attending has it under control-

she runs.

she pulls off her gown and her gloves and throws them into the bin before she’s running as fast as she can out of the room, pulling her surgical mask off and throwing that into an outside bin as well as she slams a finger onto the down button of the elevator several times in panic.

“come on, come on, come on!” she begs, choking on a sob of relief when the doors open-

and doctor golightly and archie are inside.

“cheryl? what’s-.” archie starts in shock, but cheryl shakes her head and waves them out of the elevator before jumping in after them.

“doctor topaz is in O.R. three, her patient is bleeding out! we performed a c-section but i think the source of the bleed is her spleen, you need to get in there!” she chokes out, and the elevator doors just begin to close as doctor golightly runs straight for the operating room with archie hot on his tail. 

the elevator ride feels like a hundred years, the panic inside her building and building until it reaches paramount and she’s practically sliding between the small gap of the elevator doors as soon as they open. she hits her shoulder, but barely registers the pain because of the adrenaline pumping through her as she rushes straight for the blood bank just as a woman leaves clutching two bags of red blood in her hands-

“is that the o neg for doctor topaz?!” she pants out harshly, and the second the nurse nods, cheryl’s snatching it from her hands and making her way back to the elevator, slamming her finger onto the button to take her up three levels but the elevator’s already moving down to the lobby, shit, shit, shit-

“fuck it!”

cheryl turns her head, sees the door to the staircase and runs straight for it, her entire body drenched in sweat and shaking as she climbs up the flights of stairs as if she’s running a goddamn marathon, as if a woman’s life depends on it-

_a woman’s life **does** depend on it._

her feet somehow find the energy to carry her faster, and she’s bursting through the door onto the operating room floor with her lungs squeezing for air and her body aching, pushing her to keep going as she reaches the door to the operating room-

she bursts through it and finds toni and doctor golightly working on natasha while doctor fox is working on her baby, and archie-

oh god, _archie._

“dammit, she’s losing too much blood! andrews, get in here!” doctor golightly barks, looking behind him at archie, who is frozen, watching natasha bleed out as he breathes deeply and quickly in panic-

“archie, look at me! this woman needs you to save her life, are you gonna freeze up again?!” toni demands, looking up at him in anger as he swallows thickly and steps back.

“i-.”

“you’re a surgeon! act like it! get over here and bring me those lap pads!” toni screams, and archie takes another step back, prompting cheryl to step forward instead, but she isn’t scrubbed in, fuck, it’s gonna take too long-

“if you don’t move your ass and do your job, then you can get the hell out of my O.R! you wanna stay frozen there and let this woman die, then get out, you don’t belong in here! but if you want to be who you’ve worked your ass off your whole life to be, then you buck up and get over here! that baby already doesn’t have a father, i won’t let it live without a mother, either!” toni practically roars, her voice trembling with emotion as cheryl watches the situation unfold before her in shock, and somehow-

archie moves. 

he’s running forward and reaching for the lap pads, handing them to toni, who begins stuffing them into natasha’s body as cheryl finally finds it in her to move forward with the blood bags in her hands.

“i got the blood!”

“put them on the table and scrub back in, we need all the hands we can get!” toni says urgently, and cheryl, with one last look at archie and how focused he is as he hands toni lap pad after lap pad, finds herself grinning despite her panic as she rushes out of the operating room and into the scrub-in area.

he’s back. 

archie’s back. 

—

“doctor topaz?” 

cheryl pokes her head out of natasha’s room with a tired smile at the woman who looks equally as exhausted, her eyes fluttering slightly as she looks up at cheryl anxiously.

“she’s waking up.” cheryl says hoarsely, and toni looks back at doctor fox and gives him a firm nod before she’s making her way over to cheryl, following her inside of natasha’s room as the woman on the bed groans and looks around in confusion-

“natasha, can you hear me?” toni asks softly, reaching out to take her hand, and when cheryl sees natasha’s hand flex as she grips toni’s hand back, she bites back a sob of relief and looks at toni with a smile.

“that’s good, that’s really good…natasha, there…were complications during the surgery. your spleen ruptured, likely from the stress your body was under, and it caused you to lose a lot of blood. but i don’t want you to worry, okay? our head of general surgery was able to fix it very quickly, and we’re pumping you full of antibiotics to fight any infections that may occur. you’ll be staying here so we can monitor you closely for the next few days-.”

“my baby…where’s my baby?” natasha says almost immediately, swallowing thickly as she slowly opens her eyes and looks up at toni.

and toni smiles and nods once at her before she squeezes her hands to reassure her. 

“i just checked with his doctor. your baby is doing just fine, natasha. doctor fox had to defibrillate his heart in order to stop it from beating so fast. now i know that sounds scary, but it also allowed us to place a pacemaker on him during the surgery.” toni says softly. natasha’s eyes widen, a groan escaping her as tears immediately well in her eyes at toni’s words.

“a p-pacemaker? b-but…he’s so sm-small-.”

“it’s a fetal pacemaker, it’ll only deliver the smallest of shocks to his little heart whenever it starts beating too fast to get it back to normal. now we can discuss all of this more in detail when you’re more coherent and aware, but natasha…he’s okay. and so are you. you both made it, and that’s a victory, a bigger one than we could’ve hoped for, okay?” 

the way toni speaks to her so softly has cheryl blinking back tears of her own as natasha whines before she nods slowly, and cheryl watches as her eyes slowly droop closed as she falls into slumber once more, clearly still affected by the anesthesia. toni sighs, her shoulders immediately sagging with fatigue as she looks up at cheryl with a soft chuckle.

“we’re gonna need to explain that to her again when she wakes up.” she says lightheartedly, and cheryl smiles as toni jumps up and makes her way outside of the room.

“keep an eye on her vitals for me, okay?” she says to cheryl softly, and the redhead purses her lips and nods once as toni exits the room, cheryl watching her do so from the window to see her come to a stop in front of none other than archie andrews.

cheryl feels her heart drop, and she quickly busies herself with checking natasha’s vitals, but she can still hear them talking, their voices slightly muffled as archie looks to toni anxiously.

“is she okay?” he asks hoarsely. cheryl hears toni sigh loudly as she turns her back to the window, but strains her ears in order to hear what’s being said.

“she will be. thanks to you…and cheryl. you guys did amazing today, you should be proud of yourselves. you just took a step closer to becoming surgeons.” toni says with a hint of pride in her tone that has cheryl smiling widely despite herself as she continues on trying to focus on her work, but she can’t even begin to do so when she hears archie speak once more.

“thank you, doctor topaz.” 

it’s quiet for a few moments, and cheryl thinks they’ve walked off before suddenly-

“people expect a lot out of me. i graduated high school when i was fifteen…finished college by eighteen, was out of med school by twenty two and i’m still the youngest woman on the east coast to finish her fellowship and become an attending by the age of thirty. i was considered the brightest young surgeon the country’s ever seen…for a very brief period of six months before i screwed up and lost a baby and a mother in less than ten minutes.” toni suddenly says hoarsely, her voice filled with anguish, and cheryl freezes, her heart racing as she hears archie clear his throat before he replies.

“i…what happened?” he croaks out. toni lets out a shaky sigh, and cheryl grabs natasha’s chart and pretends to write in it as she hears toni’s reply.

“i froze. just like you did. third year of residency, so it’s even worse because i should’ve known better. i should’ve _been_ better. but i froze…there was a fire in her apartment building, and she was twenty four weeks pregnant. we treated her burns, did everything we were meant to and i checked her vitals, but…god, there were so many patients and it was so chaotic and the simplest thing…i forgot to check her airways. she had a severe case of smoke inhalation and if i had checked her airways i would’ve known that from the soot but i didn’t check and…i left her side for an hour and when i came back, she was dead. and so was the baby.” toni whispers, the pain in her voice so evident, it has cheryl blinking back tears as archie inhales sharply.

“holy shit…” he breathes out. toni lets out a dark chuckle, and god, cheryl wishes she could turn around right now, but she focuses her eyes on the chart in front of her instead. 

but toni’s next words completely knock her for six, causing her to freeze completely with her pen just hovering over the paper. 

“we’re not gods, doctor andrews. we work our asses off and we sacrifice years and _years_ of our lives to feel like we’re untouchable, but we’re not. we make mistakes. we screw up…and it’s because we’re just as human as the people we’re operating on.”

cheryl feels a chill run up her spine, and she hears archie let out a whimper before he’s replying.

“i just…if i had done something, if i moved faster-.”

“you can’t dwell on the ‘if’s, archie. it’ll eat you up inside and kill you. that woman’s death is not on you. you’re a good doctor, and a good man. and god knows how many lives you’ve saved from the second you set foot inside this hospital. _that’s_ what makes you special. that’s what makes you _good._ ” toni says softly, prompting archie to choke on a sob as cheryl hears the sound of him scuffing his feet on the floor. 

“you did amazing in there today, andrews. there’s a surgeon capable of saving lives in there. don’t let him cower in fear over one mistake. those mistakes lead to victories.” toni says firmly, and cheryl blinks back tears and sniffs once as she finally turns around, but pretends to be writing something down just so she can see them from her periphery.

toni is gripping archie’s shoulder, and the red haired doctor is looking at her as if she holds all the answers in the world as he gives her a small smile.

“and h-how many mistakes have you made?”

“as an intern? many. as a resident? even more. i’ve been an attending for a year and three months and you know how many mistakes i’ve made?” she says with a soft laugh. archie waits patiently, and toni winks once at him.

“a lot less than my year as an intern and my years as a resident combined. live and learn, archie. live and learn.” she says simply, and archie’s smile is so wide, his dimples are showing. his pager goes off and he excuses himself, walking away quickly while toni lets out a shaky breath and looks at cheryl through the window.

and cheryl mouths a quick ‘thank you’ to her, watches with a smile as toni mouths back ‘you’re welcome’ before she walks away just the same. 

and it’s as she walks away, that cheryl comes to a devastating realization.

that she wants something she can’t have. that no matter how hard she tries…she’ll always want something she can’t have.

—

cheryl’s shift ends at ten thirty at night, but she doesn’t leave until midnight, too concerned with leaving natasha and the baby on their own until one of the nurses eventually manages to convince her to leave.

she’s exhausted, her entire body throbbing after the days events, particularly that run back to the operating room up the stairs during natasha’s surgery, and she throws her hair up into a ponytail with a suppressed yawn as the elevator doors swing open-

_oh for fuck’s sake…_

cheryl’s starting to wonder if she’s forever cursed to run into toni topaz in the damn elevators of this hospital as toni looks up from her phone and at cheryl, a small smile lighting up her face the second she makes eye contact with her.

“hey.” cheryl croaks out, stepping inside and quickly hitting the button for the lobby only to see it’s already lit up. she waits for the doors to close, begging that no one else comes on, and for once in her life, things go her way, because the doors close and no one else gets on.

and it’s quiet for less than two seconds before-

“cheryl…i wanted to say i’m sorry. for how i’ve behaved for the last week. you’re right, i have no right, no say or opinion in what you choose to do with your life, but…” toni trails off, and cheryl takes a deep breath in before she spins around to face the pink haired doctor, watching her curiously as she stares back at cheryl almost longingly. 

“cheryl, i can’t, and i _won’t_ apologize for choosing to keep your career safe over dating you.” toni says hoarsely, swallowing thickly as cheryl feels her heart sink before it utterly _breaks._

“can’t we…i don’t know, just keep it from everyone?! why do they have to know?!” cheryl exclaims, blinking back hot tears angrily with bared teeth as toni smiles sadly and suddenly moves forward, taking each step with purpose.

“i won’t treat you like some dirty little secret.” toni murmurs with a shake of her head. cheryl chews on her bottom lip before she blurts out what’s running through her mind, unable to contain herself.

“but aren’t those the best kind?” cheryl whispers softly, looking up into toni’s eyes and watching as her own fill with something cheryl can’t explain before she sighs and reaches a hand out, gently tucking a lock of stray hair behind cheryl’s ear tenderly. 

“you deserve better than that, cheryl blossom. you don’t deserve stolen kisses in the hallways and checking surroundings to make sure no one sees…you deserve someone who shouts it from the rooftops without a care of who hears.” toni whispers back.

cheryl feels her heart ache with affection, watches toni with nothing but want, and she swears she sees toni’s eyes drop down to her lips, god, she hopes she kisses her, please, please, just one last kiss-

the elevator doors thud before they begin to open, and toni practically jumps away from her as cheryl hears familiar laughter and turns her head to see archie and veronica standing there, the both of them laughing at something before they turn to look at cheryl and toni in surprise.

“oh, hey! i forgot my wallet, i’m buying archie a drink at the bar for overcoming his fear today! i heard you’re to thank for that, doctor topaz!” veronica says, grinning widely at the pediatric surgeon, and toni simply smiles back at her and nods at archie once.

“he had it in him all along, he just needed a little push. umm…excuse me…” and with that, toni exchanges once last glance with cheryl before she’s walking off, exiting the elevator and leaving a devastated cheryl to watch her go with nothing but sadness.

it isn’t fair…god, it’s not fair…

“uh, hey! do you wanna go to the whyte wyrm, have a couple drinks to celebrate our success?” archie says suddenly into her ear, nudging her lightly, and cheryl blinks back tears and turns to face him with a fake smile plastered on her face.

“ummm, i’m…i’m sorry, archie, but i’m tired. i’m just gonna h-head home, i think, but…congratulations. you did amazing today.” she says softly, nodding once at him before she’s also making her way off the elevator, not aware of the way archie stares at her departing figure with nothing but longing.

but someone else does.

“ugh, seriously?” veronica groans as the elevator doors shut, and archie turns to look at her in shock.

“what?”

“she’s gay dude, stop it! get the fuck over it! when are you gonna get it through your thick skull that you and cheryl? never gonna happen!” veronica huffs, rolling her eyes as archie clenches his jaw and glares at her.

“i know that, ronnie! look, i’m trying! she’s not exactly easy to get over!” he says in exasperation, sighing as veronica shakes her head with a scoff.

“god, you’re so stupid! betty likes you!” she says firmly, crossing her arms over her chest and watching with a smirk as archie looks at her in complete and utter shock.

“wh-what?” he stammers out.

_god, men are idiotic._

“betty _likes_ you! you know, betty who is straight and likes penis and will probably be more than happy to date you! so you wanna get over cheryl? ask betty out!” veronica says like it’s the simplest thing on planet earth.

“you think me asking her cousin out is gonna help me get over her!?” archie says with a scoff, and veronica, who feels like her eyes are five seconds away from being permanently glued to the back of her head from how often she’s rolled them in the last two minutes, looks at him with a frown of concern.

“it’s better than moping around! betty is cute and warm and nice and kind and…fuck, she’s amazing, archie! so stop being an idiot, and ask her out!” veronica says, slapping his arm angrily and grinning when he cries out before he’s pursing his lips, eyes distant and deep in thought…

“i…she really likes me?” he murmurs, looking to veronica, who shakes her head and stares at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“you are truly so cute, archiekins, but my god…you are clueless. now come on, let’s go get that drink.”

—

“wow…cheryl, that’s-.”

“romantic as fuck? yeah, i know!” cheryl exclaims with a groan, digging her spoon into her ice cream and taking a huge chunk of cookie from the chilled cream before devouring it with a mournful sigh.

she’s just spent the last ten minutes telling betty about her encounter with toni in the elevator, and her cousin looks at her with sadness as she swallows her bite of ice cream and looks up at her cousin solemnly. 

“betty, she’s right. we can’t be together. she’s my boss, and if anyone found out, they’d likely fire her and kick me out of the program. we can’t do it.” she whispers. betty sinks into the couch with a long whine and a shake of her head.

“she seems like such a good match for you, too. ugh, what a cruel world.” she sighs.

“why do you think we’re eating ice-cream out of the tub right now?” cheryl says with a wry smile, and betty nods before she clinks her spoon against cheryl’s and digs in once more.

“any luck with archie?” cheryl asks, wanting to get her mind off toni, and betty rolls her eyes and sighs once more.

“he still doesn’t know i exist, but…it’s whatever. just have to accept that it’s never gonna happen.” she says simply, and cheryl scoffs and salutes her.

“touché.” 

“hmm, speaking of…we need to come up with a nickname for toni. archie overheard us today and knows we were talking about toni.” betty says, and cheryl’s heart literally stops beating for a second.

“what?!” she squeaks out.

“relax, he doesn’t know details! he just thinks toni’s pissed at you but after today he’s probably forgotten all about it. seriously though, nickname, go!” betty says encouragingly, waving her spoon in cheryl’s face as the redhead frowns and tries to think of something they can-

_oh…that’s perfect._

“…how about ‘t.t’?” she says, grinning as betty frowns in confusion, trying to piece together what it means…

“t.t…‘toni topaz’…smart! i like it!” she says with a laugh, tapping a finger to cheryl’s nose and laughing when her cousin whines and shoves her with her foot, and it’s quiet for a few moments before cheryl lets out a shaky breath and looks at betty sadly.

“i really like t.t, betty.” she whispers.

and betty, in a beautiful attempt to make her cousin smile…

“i know you like titty, i’ve known since you were fourteen.”

and her payment for that kindness?

“ow! that was my ear!” betty cries out, clutching her already reddening ear from cheryl’s harsh slap to it with the handle of her spoon as the redhead shrugs and spins it back around so she can dig the round part back into the ice cream.

“you asked for it with that.”

“eh, worth it.”


	4. pick you up at eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI SORRY FOR THE DELAY, THINGS HAVE BEEN BUSY, HOPEFULLY THE NEXT CHAPTER WON'T TAKE AS LONG BUT PLEASE DON'T HATE ME IF IT DOES. I'LL KEEP YOU UPDATED ON MY TWITTER AT @ENDOFDAYSFORME!
> 
> ALSO, IF YOU'RE A BIRDS OF PREY FAN, I WILL BE WRITING MORE FICS FOR IT BECAUSE I CAN AND I WANT TO, SO I HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY THOSE WHEN THEY COME OUT.
> 
> PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT LETTING ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS ONE! BYE FOR NOW!

“cheryl marjorie blossom!”

fingers quickly grip her bicep, and cheryl winces as she’s dragged along by none other than betty cooper, her cousin pulling her into an empty supply closet as cheryl smiles sheepishly and tries not to look guilty or suspicious.

it’s been a couple weeks now since her last encounter with toni in the elevator, and they’ve worked together a couple of times since then, but it’s mostly been strictly professional, with toni refusing, once again, to spend any time alone in a room with cheryl, and only talking to her about their patients, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but…

here’s the thing.

cheryl fucking hates it.

she can’t keep doing this. she can’t keep pretending she’s not attracted to her when toni bites her lip or chews on the inside of her cheek, or when she smiles or breathes or talks, fuck, she just wants to _talk_ to her about something other than work for once…or maybe she doesn’t want to talk at all.

maybe she wants to just shove her against the wall and kiss her so hard, they both see stars-

“betty, i was just-.”

“on the peds floor when you’re not on toni’s service!” betty hisses, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at her cousin angrily as cheryl chews on her bottom lip guiltily.

“i just wanted-.”

“cheryl, you can’t do that! you’re both trying to keep it civil, be professional, you can’t just come here without a reason to see her!” betty exclaims, gripping cheryl’s hand in her own tightly with a look of sadness, but also sympathy on her face. cheryl sighs loudly, trying her best not to cry as she looks up at betty anxiously.

“i…betty, i’m trying, okay? i’m trying-.”

“well, try harder! do you know how many times she’s asked me about you over the last few weeks? like every single time i’m on her service!” cheryl looks up at her cousin in shock, her heart clenching with happiness.

toni asked about her...

“she did?”

“cheryl, of course she did! she likes you too, but you both need to stop! you’re putting your jobs and your careers on the line, if anyone finds out-.” 

anything else betty is about to say is drowned out by the sound of both their pagers going off, and they quickly check them, the both of them pausing when they read what it says.

**911 - E.R.**

“shit…”

they exchange glances before they’re rushing out of the supply closet, and cheryl stops short when she sees toni round the corner with an anxious look on her face and her eyes on her pager, eyes that quickly move up to see cheryl and betty exiting the supply closet in confusion. 

“oh! uh…” she says, looking between the both of them with a raised eyebrow, and before cheryl can even so much as look at her, betty steps closer to toni to pretty much hide cheryl from view. 

“what’s going on?” she asks, and toni’s confusion quickly fades, is replaced with anxiety as she purses her lips and nods before waving them forward to follow her.

“i’ve only heard things through the grapevine, but it sounds like a bus crash! school bus, too! peds is about to become a war zone!” toni says shakily despite how focused she looks as she jumps into the elevator with betty and cheryl right behind her. 

“do we know how many kids?” cheryl asks with concern, watching as toni runs her fingers through her hair with a shake of her head.

“no idea, but if they’re getting all hands on deck, it’s gotta be more than five.” the elevator doors open-

and it’s chaos.

betty and cheryl are frozen in shock while toni jumps right into action, but it’s jarring. nurses are running around, preparing beds and supplies while doctor chipping and the chief of surgery, doctor jones are in the middle of it all, directing everyone on where to go.

chief jones looks up as soon as toni makes her way over, and cheryl and betty quickly rush after her.

“doctor topaz, you’re about to be a busy woman!” chief jones says firmly.

“i’m aware, chief! doctor chipping, i’m gonna need your interns, all of them!” toni says quickly, and doctor chipping simply nods. 

“on it, all elective surgeries have been pushed back anyway, so i’m sure i’ll have no trouble getting them off the services they’re on!” he calls out as toni walks straight past them towards the emergency room entrance.

“good! thank you! come on, you two!” toni says, waving betty and cheryl forward and reaching for a gown and gloves from the wall next to the entrance, betty and cheryl following suite before all three begin tying their hair up into ponytails. 

“damn it, there’s a hole in my glove!” betty curses, rushing back inside and leaving the attending and her cousin outside. 

toni and cheryl end up side by side to each other as they step outside into the crisp fall air, the both of them exchanging glances, and cheryl decides to take advantage of the fact that betty is still inside and out of their way as she clears her throat and looks out to the empty area around them.

“how…how are you?” cheryl asks softly, fiddling with her gloved fingers as toni fidgets beside her and suddenly looks down at her shoes anxiously. 

“i want to ask you something, or…make a suggestion, i guess.” she says with a nod, looking up at cheryl with a smile, and cheryl frowns once in confusion.

“what is it?” she asks. toni inhales shakily before she exhales and nods once again.

“i would like…for us to try and be friends.” she says simply. 

cheryl frowns even further at that. 

“friends?” she says in surprise, and toni smiles and shrugs as she fixes her gloves.

“yeah! because, well…i miss you. and i like talking to you. and if we can’t…” toni mumbles, trailing off as she looks up at cheryl expectantly.

and cheryl, at the sight of her beautiful smile, comes to a very quick and easy answer.

“we can be friends.” she decides almost immediately. 

because if she can’t have toni the way she wants, then at least…at least she can have her this way…right?

“we can be friends.” toni repeats, nodding resolutely as betty suddenly joins them once more, followed by archie, veronica and reggie.

toni clears her throat and steps back to look at all of them with a serious nod and eyes blazing with focus.

“alright, interns! this is an emergency situation, which means i need all of you to focus, completely and utterly! these kids are going to be scared and they’re going to be in a lot of pain, you need to be patient and understanding! i’ll direct you on what to do and where to go, if you have any questions, ask me or one of the other attendings! breathe, and focus, okay?” all of the interns nod, and toni takes a deep breath in and spins around as the sirens echoing out from far away get closer and closer.

“please pay attention to everything that’s said to you, guys! we’ve got children’s lives in our hands!” toni calls out loudly as the first ambulance rounds the corner. all the interns immediately tense up, and betty looks to cheryl anxiously as the ambulance comes to stop in front of the emergency room and in front of all of them.

_here we go._

cheryl takes a deep breath in, steadies herself-

and jumps into action.

she helps toni open the back doors of the ambulance as two paramedics begin wheeling a gurney out with a small body on top-

“what have you got?!” toni demands.

“six year old female, blunt abdominal trauma and several lacerations to the face and arms, bp’s 109 over 72! we found her sandwiched between two of the bus seats!” one of the paramedics yells out, and toni quickly flashes a light to the girl’s eyes as she moans in pain, arms bound to the gurney and head strapped down with a neck brace, she’s so young…

“how bad is it out there?” toni breathes, looking up at the paramedic, who frowns and simply shakes his head.

“there were a few fatalities…dead when we got there. the bus, it...it fell over the side of a cliff.” he murmurs quietly, and cheryl feels her heart drop.

a bus falling over the side of a cliff? god, the fact that they’ve even got survivors is a miracle and a half…and they’re children, too…

cheryl watches as toni exhales shakily before she looks toward the interns all gathered around the young girl’s gurney, and cheryl can practically see the cogs in her head turning before-

“mantle, take her and page golightly! the rest of you stay here, we got more incoming!”

“on it!” reggie says, leading the paramedics into the emergency room with the girl as another ambulance pulls up. 

this time, betty helps open the doors as another patient is wheeled out.

“eight year old male, penetrating injury in his upper thigh! lungs are clear, vitals are stable, he’s coherent! we gave him as much morphine as we could out on the field, but that shit is gonna wear off soon! he was screaming bloody murder when we found him!”

and as he’s wheeled out, cheryl sees it.

a gigantic shard of what looks like glass sticking out of this young boy’s leg…

“we’ve got a couple of others with us, non-emergencies, mostly lacerations and bruising!” the paramedic says, looking behind him as three more young children exit the ambulance, all of them tear stricken and terrified.

cheryl takes in their injuries, and toni smiles up at the three kids as best as she can and holds her arms out to help them off the ambulance.

“hey, guys! i’m doctor topaz, these guys are on my team of doctors! we’re gonna take really good care of you, okay?” she says softly, helping each kid down as they look around them in confusion and fear.

“lodge, take the boy with the glass in his leg, and page ortho! are there any other severe injuries?” she asks the paramedic.

“one more! the ambulance should get here in a moment!” he says as veronica leads them into the emergency room.

“alright, cooper, blossom, get these kids into the E.R., tend to their wounds, soothe them, keep them calm until their parents get here and circle the E.R., page me if anything needs attending to!”

“wait, we’re working the E.R.?” betty asks nonplussed, looking at toni as if she’s grown a third head as the pink haired doctor sighs, still clutching two of the children’s hands.

“yes, you are working the E.R. no, i won’t hear any complaints about it! now move! andrews, with me!” toni hisses, leading the kids forward into cheryl and betty’s arms. 

and cheryl and betty have no choice but to lead the three kids into the emergency room, the both of them trying not to be too disgruntled about not getting in on one of the emergency cases.

_looks like it’s sutures for the day…_

but cheryl doesn’t mind so much, not when the child’s hand she’s holding squeezes hers and looks around the emergency room and the chaos in it with panic.

“hey, it’s okay! doctor cooper and i are just gonna take care of all those cuts on you and do a check up, okay?” cheryl says sweetly, lifting the kid into her arms, her heart melting almost immediately at the way the child grips her neck like a lifeline and rests his head on her shoulder with a sniff. cheryl rubs his back soothingly, looking to betty, who leads the other two kids to a bed in the corner out of everyone’s way when suddenly-

“please! just make sure the kids are okay, that’s all that matters!” 

cheryl spins around in surprise to see a woman making her way into the emergency room, not a scratch on her, but her eyes wide and frantic, and cheryl frowns before she sets the child in her arms down beside betty and rushes over to her quickly.

“ma’am, are you okay? were you in the accident?” cheryl asks patiently, observing the woman for any wounds and sighing in relief when she shakes her head.

“n-no! i’m the principal of riverdale elementary! the b-bus driver contacted me, told me everyone was on the way to the hospital and that there’d been a crash-.” 

anything else the principal is about to say is drowned out as cheryl hears loud yelling and spins around to see three paramedics rushing straight into one of the trauma rooms heading straight their way with toni and archie right by them-

“move, move, move! bp’s 160 over 98, he collapsed on the field after being coherent for over half an hour, his abdomen is rigid-.”

“oh god, alan! that’s him, what happened to him!?” the principal cries, tears welling in her eyes as she goes to follow the gurney, but cheryl stops her quickly as toni and archie lead the patient into a private trauma room.

“ma’am, i need you to relax and tell me if you have the contact information of the students involved in the crash! we need to contact their parents!” cheryl says urgently. the woman’s bottom lip trembles, tears in her eyes before she nods once as cheryl waves over one of the receptionists.

“give all their details to her, then i want you to come over to that corner there, okay? i have three of your students with me, they only suffered minor injuries but it might help them feel better to see someone they know around!” she says firmly, and the woman grows impossibly paler before she nods quickly before cheryl makes her way back over to betty, who rushes over to the emergency cart in the corner.

the three children are propped up on a bed beside one another, all three of them clutching hands, and cheryl feels her heart melt as she pulls up a seat beside the young boy with as big a smile as she can manage despite the tragedy before her. 

“hey buddy, you wanna tell me your name?” cheryl asks softly as betty returns with a few needles of anesthetic and suture kits. 

“j-jacob!” he whimpers, tears falling down his cheeks as cheryl watches the blood drip down the side of his face from a nasty cut to his forehead, and she lifts him into her arms and sets him down on one of the chairs in the corner before she kneels down in front of him.

“okay, jacob, can you tell me how old you are?” cheryl asks quickly with a smile to distract him as betty waves over a now free archie as he walks toward them with a grim expression.

_oh no…_

“e-eight…” jacob sniffs, and cheryl smiles and jumps up to brush away his tears with her gloved fingers and a smile.

“well it’s nice to meet you, jacob…my name is cheryl and can you guess how old i am?” she asks with a chuckle, watching as his bottom lip trembles and more tears well in his eyes before archie comes to a stop beside her and quickly bends down to whisper into her ear.

“bus driver didn’t make it. doctor topaz is on her way in a second she’s just checking on the others…” he murmurs before he’s quickly moving onto the third girl on the bed beside the one betty is working on right now, a smile instantly lighting up his face.

“hey sweetie! is this your sister?” archie asks, nodding to the girl betty is working on and taking in their intertwined hands as they both nod with sniffs of sadness.

cheryl bites down on the inside of her cheek and lets out a shaky breath before she looks at jacob, who still looks terrified, and holds a hand out for him to high five.

“just a guess! there’s a crisp high five waiting for you if you get it right!” she says with a grin, and jacob sniffs again before he looks at her once and says-

“th-thirty!” he blurts out.

cheryl fakes shock and anger.

“thirty!? do i look _that_ old?!” she exclaims, watching as jacob giggles and sniffs before he wipes his tears and nods.

“y-yeah!” she drops her hand with a huff and reaches for the needle of anesthetic as conspicuously as possible.

“well, i am definitely _not_ thirty! but hey, you think you can tell me who your favorite superhero is?” she asks, quickly uncapping the needle as jacob looks at it with wide eyes. he whimpers, and cheryl quickly takes his hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

“hey, it’s okay! it doesn’t hurt, i promise! how about…you close your eyes, and have a really good think about who your favorite superhero is, how about that?” she asks softly, watching as he whines before he nods and quickly squeezes his eyes shut, and cheryl lets out a shaky breath and assesses the cut before she takes jacob’s hand and wraps his little fingers around her lab coat.

“you just squeeze this _real_ tight if you feel any pain, okay? now i need you to relax and try not to move, alright? you think you can do that and be strong for me for just a moment?” she asks, and jacob, still with his eyes squeezed shut, nods a couple of times and grips her lab coat fiercely before he suddenly begins talking.

“i l-like b-batman!” he squeaks, causing cheryl to smile as she stands and just begins to slide the needle underneath the skin and muscle as jacob inhales sharply and clutches her lab coat even harder and scrunches his face a little with a whine.

“batman?! eh, he’s okay…superman is way better!” cheryl exclaims, quickly injecting the anesthetic and watching as jacob exhales before he replies.

“superman gets weakened by kryptonite! he’s not special!” he says, and cheryl hums under her breath and removes the needle before placing it once more in a different area next to the cut.

“maybe so, but batman is human! so he gets weakened by _everything_!” she says with a chuckle, watching as jacob winces once again, but only lightly grips her lab coat, the anesthetic clearly already taking affect. 

“but batman does all these amazing things even as a human! you just shove a green rock in superman’s face and he gets weak!” he huffs, looking up at her with a pout that has her smiling as she injects a few more spots to make sure he’s completely numb while also keeping the needle out of his line of vision, and jacob is almost completely relaxed, only his hands still gripping her lab coat as cheryl rubs his back with her free hand soothingly. 

“yeah, but superman has _superpowers_. face facts: you, my good sir, are totally wrong.” cheryl teases, watching as jacob sticks his tongue out at her before she feels a hand touch her lower back.

“you three okay?” toni asks softly, looking to each of the interns as they all nod and look down at their patients with smiles.

“we’re good here, right, jacob?” cheryl asks, watching as jacob looks up at toni and suddenly points at cheryl with a whine.

“she thinks superman is better than batman!” he exclaims, prompting toni to blink in shock before she looks up at cheryl with a wide grin.

“gotta agree with jacob, doctor blossom, superman blows, batman is totally awesome.” 

“see?!” jacob says with a grin, and cheryl sticks her tongue out at the both of them as toni laughs lightly, and they exchange a look before suddenly-

“doctor topaz, if i can get your assistance?” betty says suddenly, looking at cheryl with wide eyes and a slight frown of disapproval as toni clears her throat and makes her way over to betty quickly. cheryl glares at her cousin, who nods down at jacob as if telling her to do her job and stop flirting.

cheryl wants to kick her ass.

“do you th-think my parents will be here soon?” jacob asks softly and suddenly, prompting cheryl to turn around with a smile as she nods once and brushes his hair back from his face gently.

“yeah, i’m sure they’ll be here real soon, okay? but until they come, how about you tell me more about your favorite superheroes, huh?” jacob sniffs and nods as cheryl stands to grab more gauze, but he whimpers and reaches out to grab cheryl, who stops short and smiles at him before she gives his hand a gentle squeeze.

because he's scared, and, well...

_jason..._

"hey, i'm right here, okay? i'm not going anywhere, i promise. okay?" she says softly, and jacob smiles before he nods once.

"o-okay."

"good...now, try and convince me that batman is worth liking!"

—

of course, they’re flooded with worried parents about an hour later, and cheryl is forced time and time again to tell some of them that they have no news about any other survivors except the ones already in their emergency room despite knowing full well that the paramedic said there were _some_ casualties. it makes her sick to her stomach to know that the children of some of these parents are likely dead, but she tries her best to just focus on the here and now as toni runs around the emergency room like a chicken without a damn head, looking beyond exhausted as she does.

eventually, hours after the accident, the police bring in a list of names, and doctor jones is the one to step up to the plate being the chief, reading the list out, at which point cheryl excuses herself and heads back into the emergency room because she can’t witness those parents finding out their children are dead, she just can’t. 

she already had to go through this with her own parents, she can't do it again...

it brings back memories she'd rather forget, but cheryl does her best to push it all down and focus, because these kids need her, and what happened to her...it happened a long time ago. 

these kids need her.

jacob is reunited with his parents, something that makes cheryl smile on an otherwise gloomy day as his two fathers clutch him close with choked out sobs, and the two little sisters are also with their parents, all four of them hugging each other tightly. 

cheryl focuses on that…she focuses on the _good_ of this job, on the things that matter, smiles when she sees toni walking past taking off her scrub cap with a tired, but victorious smile on her face, no doubt making her way over to the waiting room where the other parents are to inform them she’s saved the life of one of their children.

they make eye contact for the briefest moment, toni giving cheryl a small smile before she’s turning the corner, and cheryl chews on her bottom lip before she turns around and processes that despite there being a catastrophic accident, there’s still work to be done…

because there’s still patients in the emergency room. ones that weren’t involved in the accident that need attending to. 

so despite the fatigue and exhaustion from the emotional rollercoaster the last five hours have been, cheryl cranes her neck to get some relief from the tension building in it and lets out a groan before she’s walking forward, desperate to get away for just five minutes-

and someone grabs her arm fiercely, nails digging into her forearm before a hand is gripping the front of her scrubs as she spins around in shock and sees a woman looking up at her with wide eyes, blood staining her face-

“HEY, I NEED A GURNEY OVER HERE!” cheryl screams, arms immediately moving under the woman’s to lift her up as she collapses into cheryl with her eyes fluttering into the back of her head as two nurses rush over with a gurney. 

“help me lift her!” cheryl says urgently, panic gripping her before she takes a deep breath in and assesses the woman as the nurses grab her legs and lift her, all of them working together to lay her flat on the bed-

she’s not breathing properly, cheryl can see it from the way she's gasping for air and her face is turning blue, looking slightly puffy as well-

“move, move!” cheryl shouts, pushing past the nurses and grabbing a laryngoscope. she quickly tilts the woman’s head back and opens her mouth, pushing the laryngoscope down her throat and realizing-

she can’t. it won't go any further than the back of her throat and cheryl can't see past it, oh shit-

“her airways are closing up! she’s in anaphylactic shock, someone give her an epinephrine shot and get me her fucking chart!” cheryl calls out as calmly as she can, watching as one of the nurses hands her an epi pen that she takes into her hand and stabs straight into the woman's thigh, pressing down with bared teeth and watching the woman carefully-

the woman gasps loudly, her airways once again opening as she chokes down air, and cheryl bites back a whimper of relief and jumps up, rolls her over to her side and grabs an oxygen mask, pulling it over her head and onto her face to help her breathe as she bends down beside her with a smile.

“hey! gave me quite a scare there, can you tell me your name?” she asks softly as the woman draws in shuddering breaths with her eyes still fluttering slightly.

“k-kelly…kelly hart…” she manages to rasp out through the mask.

“okay, someone find me kelly hart’s chart, please!” cheryl calls out before she’s turning back to the woman with another smile.

"don't panic, kelly, it looks like you were having an allergic reaction to something. as soon as i get my hands on your chart i'll be able to give you specifics. just hang tight." kelly nods just as one of the nurses brings over a chart, and cheryl takes it with a frown of worry. 

“here you go, doctor blossom.”

“thank you…” cheryl flips through the chart, checks what kelly came in for and what medicine they gave her, and lastly, who her doctor is.

she sees betty’s name signed at the top, and her heart falls.

_shit…_

“uhh…okay, kelly, it says here you were in a car crash, is that right?” cheryl asks, watching as kelly nods slowly before cheryl frowns and looks at the rest of the chart.

“you had a cut to your cheek and your forearm that was treated, a full exam was done and everything came back clean…” she murmurs, trying to understand why this woman would have gone into anaphylactic shock if she was given nothing but-

“kelly, are you allergic to morphine?” cheryl asks as gently as possible, watching as kelly frowns before she lifts her gas mask off her face with a shaking hand.

“n-not that i kn-know of.” she manages to get out, and cheryl sighs, but smiles as best as she can. it’s a relief, because it doesn’t get betty in trouble, but fuck, a patient of hers could’ve just died…

“alright, well, it looks like you are, kelly. your doctor gave you some morphine for the pain and your body didn’t respond very well to it.” kelly’s eyes widen, and cheryl looks around before she spots doctor chipping.

“excuse me, doctor chipping?!” she calls out, waving him over, and he scoffs before he’s walking towards her, clearly not impressed at her summoning him with a wave of her hand. 

“what is it, blossom?” he grumbles, not even paying attention to her as she exhales shakily and nods down at kelly.

“this woman just went into anaphylactic shock, we gave her a shot of epinephrine, but it looks like morphine was administered and she’s allergic to it-.”

“you’re telling me you gave a patient a medication that they’re allergic to?” doctor chipping says suddenly, looking up at her in anger and snatching the chart from her hands as cheryl blinks once in shock.

“no, not me! i…the patient wasn’t aware they were allergic to it-.” 

“did doctor…cooper ask the patient if they were allergic to morphine?” doctor chipping asks, clearly seeing betty’s name at the top before he’s looking to cheryl, who chews on her bottom lip with hesitation before shaking her head.

“i…i don’t know, i wasn’t here, i-.”

“where is doctor cooper? this is her patient, why is she not the one looking after her? why are _you_ doing it?” doctor chipping growls, clearly not impressed with his interns as cheryl glares at him in rage.

“she couldn’t breathe, i was doing my job-.”

“frankly, _doctor_ blossom, i don’t give a damn! this is cooper’s responsibility! and go change your damn scrubs, you’re covered in blood!” doctor chipping hisses angrily, practically shoving cheryl out of the way as she steps back and glares at the back of doctor chipping’s head with the maddening urge to punch him square in the back of it.

but instead, she clenches her fist, nails digging into her skin before she steps back and walks away, taking deep breaths in as she does.

she doesn’t want to get kicked out of the program…she doesn’t, but god, does she wish she had been assigned another resident because doctor chipping is a fucking ass licking, cum guzzling piece of fucking shit-

she practically kicks open the door of the nearest on-call room, her anger getting the better of her as she looks through the drawers for new scrubs, pulling off the pants and top and grumbling under her breath over the fact that she just got yelled at for something she didn’t even do wrong.

she did everything fucking right. what was she supposed to do, just let the woman choke to death and grab betty? she just doesn’t fucking get it, why does he have to be such an asshole-

“hey, are you…”

cheryl spins around in shock with a gasp, suddenly very aware of how half naked she is before her eyes are landing on pink hair-

and her heart drops even further.

toni’s eyes are wide, filled with shock as they move up and down cheryl’s body before she’s stepping inside quickly and closing the door behind her, breathing heavily and still looking her up and down before she’s suddenly looking away quickly.

“uh, sorry, i just…i saw you storm in here all…all upset and…” toni trails off, letting out a shaky breath as cheryl licks her lips and tries to form words, but she’s suddenly very aware of how exposed she is as toni continues to attempt to avert her gaze, but she’s not doing a very good job of it…

“toni…” cheryl breathes, swallowing the lump in her throat as toni slowly looks up at her with hesitation written all over her face.

they’re staring at each other for what feels like a lifetime, brown reflected on brown, drinking each other in, and despite the fact that cheryl feels terribly exposed in just her bra and underwear right now, she finds herself not moving an inch as toni swallows thickly and suddenly reaches behind her for the doorknob.

cheryl’s heart breaks at the idea of toni leaving, a whimper escaping her, but to her surprise, toni doesn’t leave.

in fact…she reaches for the lock beneath the doorknob.

she turns it with a resounding click, cheryl’s stomach lurching and this lust pounding through her entire body, all her anger forgotten as toni slowly removes her hand from the doorknob.

they stare at each other for a beat longer, time slowing down until finally-

toni walks forward.

it’s slow, almost predatory how she reaches for the lapels of her lab coat and slowly peels the fabric off, dropping it to the ground behind her the closer she gets to cheryl, and no words need to be spoken as she comes to a stop in front of her and simply stares at her.

that one look conveys _everything._

cheryl feels like her entire body is vibrating with static, and her heart is beating so fast, she has no idea if she’s about to have a heart attack because her arms are tingling, but then toni is reaching for the bottom of her own scrubs-

and cheryl’s helping her.

her body just acts on instinct, reaching for the hem of her shirt to lift it up over her head, and the second it drops down to the floor beside them, toni reaches a hand up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear and she’s kissing her. 

it’s soft and sweet enough to have cheryl gripping toni’s bare sides, fingers grazing over smooth brown skin before the pink haired doctor seems to lose all sense of self control.

because she’s suddenly tangling her fingers into cheryl’s hair and kissing her with bruising force, this soft moan escaping the both of them before cheryl feels herself being pushed back until she’s connecting with the wall behind her.

she groans at the pain, but it’s quickly hushed by toni’s lips against hers, her mind spinning, god, this feels _incredible-_

“what-happened…to-fuck- _tobeingfriends?_ ” cheryl manages to gasp out, eyes rolling into the back of her head as toni sucks her pulse point into her mouth harshly. 

“friends can fuck each other.” toni mumbles against her skin, teeth nipping as cheryl tries to push herself off the wall a little only for toni to shove her back against it.

“oh, they c-can?”

“cheryl?”

“yeah?”

“shut up.” 

cheryl bites back a smile that quickly dissolves into a moan as toni pulls her off the wall just to sneak her hand behind cheryl’s back to unclasp her bra, quickly peeling it off her body before she’s once again pushing her up against the wall.

cheryl has no idea why toni’s being so rough with her, but really, who gives a fuck, she’s _loving_ every damn second of it anyway-

toni’s fingers brush across the top of her panties before she’s dipping her fingers into the lace and drawing quick, hurried circles against cheryl’s center, her head flying back up to kiss the redhead into silence as a high pitched whine escapes her from the pleasure that shoots right through her body almost immediately. she tangles her fingers into toni’s hair, unsure of where else she can really grab as toni pins her body to the wall with her own. 

“t-toni-.” 

the pink haired woman pulls back to look her in the eyes, as if asking for reassurance that cheryl wants this, and cheryl’s simple reply is a kiss before toni’s lifting the hand not down her pants to brush her fingers up her sides, thumb brushing over a rosy pink bud before she’s kissing along her collarbone, lips leaving a trail of fire on cheryl’s skin, god, this shouldn’t even be _allowed-_

wait…this so isn’t allowed, they’re at work, they’re at fucking _work-_

two of toni’s fingers suddenly dip further down before they’re pushing into cheryl at a pace that has her eyes almost rolling into the back of her head, and when toni uses her free hand to grip cheryl’s chin so she can move her head to the side to suck at the skin under her ear, cheryl loses all sense of time and space and everything seems to just exist in this moment here where toni is fucking her against a goddamn wall in the middle of her goddamn shift and the hospital-

“you’re so beautiful.” toni whispers against her skin, pulling back with a soft smile that as cheryl’s heart melting before toni’s pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth, then to her chin, then her pulse, her collarbone, between her breasts, above her bellybutton-

“o-oh, shit!” cheryl manages to get out, fingers tangling into toni’s hair as the woman sinks to her knees and pulls one of cheryl’s legs off the wall to place it over her shoulder and her finger hooks into her underwear to pull it to the side. 

the second cheryl feels the bumps of toni’s tongue against her, she’s shoving a fist into her mouth to stop herself from crying out, her hips bucking forward into toni’s mouth as she pulls back to peel cheryl’s underwear clean off, throwing it somewhere behind her and hooking her leg back over her shoulder before diving right back in.

“h-holy fuck, toni-.”

“shush, you gotta keep it down…” toni breathes out with a chuckle, pressing a kiss to her inner thigh before she’s biting down on it, and cheryl bites down on her lower lip to silence herself as her hips buck involuntarily once more, forcing toni to lay a flat palm over her stomach to push her back against the wall. 

it doesn’t take long for cheryl at all, her entire body shaking against toni’s hold as she climbs to the top of the cliff and falls over the edge of it with three final strokes of toni’s tongue, and she’s clapping a hand over her own mouth to muffle her moans as the other hand tangles into toni’s hair and practically pushes her closer, the pink haired doctor moaning into her center and scratching her nails down the sides of cheryl’s thighs as she comes down from her high slowly. 

cheryl slowly lowers her hand from her mouth, panting for air with a whine as toni makes her way back up her body with gentle kisses, nose nuzzling against cheryl’s affectionately once she’s face to face with her before she’s taking cheryl’s hands and pulling her away from the wall with a chuckle.

cheryl manages to move forward on slightly shaking legs as toni leads them over to one of the bunk beds and crashes down on top of it, pulling cheryl along with her, and the redhead laughs as she falls on top of her, kissing along her jawline as toni runs her fingers up and down her spine with a breathless laugh.

it’s quiet for a few moments, the both of them simply enjoying the skin to skin contact before-

“today was crazy, huh?” toni croaks out suddenly, another laugh escaping her as cheryl looks up at her in surprise before she actually takes in toni’s expression.

tears are swimming in her eyes, and her bottom lip is trembling and…

and toni had to handle a bus crash today, had five little patients to take care of that could’ve died, and some patients…some patients who were dead on arrival, who she had to call time of death on who were kids…

“oh, toni…” cheryl whispers, lifting a hand to brush the tears away that fall down the sides of her face and into her hair, and she kisses toni’s brow softly as the pink haired doctor holds her close and cries into her neck, clearly overwhelmed.

and in that moment, cheryl decides one thing and one thing only.

that’ll she’ll stay lying on this bed for forever if that’s how long it takes for toni to be okay again.

—

“hey, has anyone seen cheryl?!” betty calls out, looking to veronica and archie at the other side of the emergency room and watching as they both shrug before she sighs and decides to take another lap of the room, because she needs to find her damn cousin-

“doctor cooper!” betty spins around in shock at the sound of her name to see doctor chipping making his way over to her-

and he looks _livid._

“doctor chipping, is everything okay-.”

“your patient almost died today! a young woman by the name of kelly hart, she went into anaphylactic shock because _you_ gave her morphine! something she’s very much allergic to!” doctor chipping growls, practically gathering the attention of everyone else in the room as betty feels her heart drop in surprise.

fuck…fuck, fuck, fuck, she didn’t know, she-

“i…doctor chipping, i asked her if she was allergic to anything and she s-said no-.” betty starts, but doctor chipping laughs harshly and shoves the chart into her chest angrily.

“you screwed up and your patient almost died! lucky for you, doctor blossom was able to save her life! don’t fuck up again, cooper! you’re officially on my shit list and i’m gonna be watching you like a hawk!” he hisses through bared teeth, and before betty can say anything, he’s walking away, leaving his young intern blinking back tears as she looks around at everyone looking at her apprehensively…

she runs straight for the elevators, trying her best to ignore the stares and shrugging off archie’s hand as he reaches out to her.

“betty…” 

archie watches her go in sadness, every part of him telling him to go after her and comfort her, but by the time his feet even budge, betty’s already getting into the elevator and-

“go after her!” veronica hisses to him, pulling archie’s attention to her momentarily before he’s looking at betty again in hesitation.

“i think she wants to be left alone-.”

“is that what you’ve been saying for the last few weeks since i told you to ask her out? is that why you haven’t fucking done it yet?!” veronica growls, making her way over to him, and archie chews on the inside of his cheek and looks up just as the doors close, cutting off betty from his sight…

“i…ronnie, i’m scared to, okay?” archie says softly, looking to her sadly as veronica rolls her eyes at him.

“why?!”

“because, i…what if it ends badly and our friendship is ruined-.”

“dude, who cares?! god, you’re cute, but you’re dumb as a doorknob! buck up and do it already, she likes you and you like her, so what the fuck is stopping you?! you have a chance to make a friendship into something even more meaningful! don’t waste that opportunity!” veronica exclaims, shaking her head as archie licks his lips before he sighs and looks to the spot of the elevator where betty disappeared once again, teeth gnawing at his bottom lip…

veronica has a point. she does, but god, what if this ruins everything between him and betty? he doesn’t want to lose her, but…but he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about her in that way since he found out she liked him…

_buck up andrews!_

“…you’re right.” archie says firmly, making a beeline towards the elevators as veronica whoops behind him loudly.

“atta boy! go on!” she shouts, grinning widely as archie jumps into the elevator and gives her a thumbs up as the doors close, concealing him from view.

and veronica’s grin quickly fades as she takes in a shaky breath and lets it go, trying her best to ignore the ache in her heart over watching archie go after betty, even if she was encouraging it…

_fuck this…_

veronica squares her shoulders and makes her way over to reggie who is finishing up sutures on a patient, his brow furrowed in concentration before-

“reggie! on-call room on the fifth floor, five minutes.” veronica says firmly, already walking away before he has a chance to say anything as his shoulders slump and he lets out a tired sigh.

“i’m exhausted, ronnie-.”

“do i look like someone who cares? move your ass!” veronica barks, and she’s already gone by the time reggie frowns at her retreating figure before he’s shrugging and making up his mind.

fuck exhaustion, that’s one hot piece of ass and he’s not about to lose out on it.

—

“cheryl, i-.”

“shh, don’t ruin the moment.” cheryl whispers, lips trailing kisses over the love bites on toni's neck as the pink haired doctor giggles and wraps her arms around cheryl even tighter.

cheryl has no clue how long they've been in here for, but she knows they'll have to head out eventually before someone gets suspicious-

“i know, but cher?" toni croaks out, fingers tangling into cheryl's hair as she tucks a finger beneath her chin to lift her gaze. brown eyes bore into brown, the both of them taking each other in, swollen lips and love bitten skin...

"you know what this means, right? we can’t be friends, we…we just can’t. it won't work, not with the way we feel about each other.” toni whispers, lips kissing the skin between her brows tenderly and making cheryl smile as her heart melts at the action.

she can't be friends with toni topaz. she really fucking can't...

“i know…i know that, we can’t, it’s too fucking hard, we can't just be friends..." cheryl breathes, fingers trailing over toni's bare skin over her stomach and between her breasts-

“so…maybe we can just keep it a secret.” toni murmurs against her skin, the heel of her foot brushing up and down the back of cheryl's thigh from where the redhead is resting on top of her in a way that has cheryl nodding into her neck eagerly.

“maybe…maybe we can keep it a secret.” she agrees immediately, prompting toni to laugh loudly before she's rolling them over until they're both on their sides, her lips pressing kisses to every inch of cheryl's skin and causing her to giggle from the tickle of it.

“mmm, stop agreeing with me.”

"i like agreeing with you." cheryl pouts, grinning when toni looks up at her and nips at her bottom lip with a soft laugh. she pulls back, stares at cheryl in pure _awe_ for a few moments before she brushes her hair back from her face with a frown.

"when you came in here, you looked upset..." she murmurs, and cheryl remembers doctor chipping, and how he had yelled at her for doing something she was supposed to do...

but then she remembers that doctor chipping is her superior, and so is toni, and, well...

"nothing, it's just...doctor chipping is an asshole, that's all." she murmurs, averting her gaze and prompting toni to grip her chin again to force her gaze back to her with a sad smile.

"you okay?" she asks softly, leaning in to press a gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth that has cheryl smiling and forgetting all about chipping.

"i definitely am now." she whispers back against her lips. toni laughs and scratches her nails down cheryl's back affectionately before-

"we need to get back before we get caught." toni murmurs, pushing herself up off the bed and reaching for her clothes as cheryl whines and rolls onto her back with a pout.

"ugh, fine, but..." toni pauses, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow as cheryl sits up with a smile.

“dinner?” she asks hopefully.

and toni grins as she clips her bra on behind her back and puts her underwear and pants back on before she leans in and kisses cheryl as passionately as she can, only pulling back to whisper-

“mmm, tomorrow night. pick you up at eight.”


	5. it's what you deserve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heh. hiiiii.
> 
> it's been two months, I know. a lot has happened in two months. I hope you guys are safe during this pandemic.
> 
> I finally found the opportunity to not be panicking about real life things, and I'm in a stable position again to start writing. I can't guarantee it'll last, and I can't guarantee I'll be in the right mental state given all that's happening to be posting regularly, but I can guarantee that I'm trying my absolute best. I hope you guys can understand and I thank you all for your continuous patience. I've got another fic coming that is also multi chapter, and these two fics will be the ones I'm working on the most through all of this, so I can provide some form of entertainment for you all during this incredibly trying time. stay safe guys, keep your distance, wash your hands and I'm praying this is all over soon. love you guys xo
> 
> leave a comment letting me know what you think about this chapter, and again, I'm sorry for the long wait. I hope you guys can understand given what's going on that fic writers, including myself, are trying their best to write, but it's hard. we may have all the spare time in the world given we're in quarantine and bored out of our brains, but it's hard to focus on writing when we're all so worried about what's going on, so please be patient with not just me, but every fic writer on this platform. <3

“what if it goes terribly?”

cheryl ties her shoelaces and chews on the piece of banana in her mouth, shaking her head simply before looking up at her cousin with a smile.

“it won’t!” she manages to say through her mouthful of food. betty begins flinging more clothes out of her closet with a heavy sigh and a look of panic on her face.

“how do you know?!” she whines. cheryl rolls her eyes and simply sighs.

for a whole two weeks now, betty’s been worrying and worrying about her date with archie, has been asking cheryl over and over again what she should do for every single damn second of the date, from when archie picks her up to the second he says goodbye at the doorstep. cheryl has no idea what advice to give her, has just been nodding supportively, but the date has been looming closer and closer, and betty has just been getting more and more frantic.

and now, it’s finally here, both archie and betty finally having a night off at the same time to actually go on a proper date. it’s been cute watching them try to plan it, and it’s been cute watching them flirt, but god, cheryl is ready for them to just go on this fucking date already so she doesn’t need to hear anything about it anymore.

she’s got her own shit going on.

like her secret relationship with toni.

cheryl has to admit, this whole ‘dating your boss behind everyone’s back’ thing has been kind of exhilarating and adrenaline rushing, but it’s also been terrifying. they’ve been doing what they can to make sure they don’t get caught…kissing in elevators when it’s just the two of them or meeting in on call rooms to do… _more_ than that. 

it’s been a little annoying, having to share stolen kisses away from their co-workers, but it’s been worth it. toni is…amazing.

beyond amazing.

“betty, if you don’t stop panicking over that pretty boy, i swear to god…” veronica murmurs from her position slumped over betty’s bed. both veronica and betty have the night off, but cheryl’s working the night shift, had volunteered to do so after learning that toni was working tonight as well.

more opportunity for them to see each other.

“everything’s gonna be okay, right?” betty asks nervously, and cheryl jumps up and presses a kiss to betty’s cheek.

“it’s gonna go great. have fun!” she says happily.

“you’re still a freak for volunteering to work tonight!” veronica calls out, and cheryl simply shrugs as she exits the bedroom with a grin.

“gotta save lives somehow, can’t do it from here!”

meanwhile, veronica eyes betty cautiously, feeling a little bit guilty for the anger and jealousy boiling up inside her as betty fusses over her outfit and hair and the fact that she’s going on a date with archie, fuck, veronica needs to reign it in, betty’s her friend, betty comes first, betty-

“veronica?!” the raven haired girl jumps in surprise at the yell of her name and looks up to see betty looking at her with wide eyes.

“what?”

“which one looks better? the blue blouse or the white?” betty asks anxiously. veronica hesitates before she smiles and nods at the blouse in her left hand.

“white…definitely white, betts.”

betty’s smile is almost contagious, cheeks flushing with nerves, and veronica finds herself sighing before she nods to herself resolutely while betty looks over herself in the mirror with the white blouse pressed against her body.

she won’t ruin her best friend’s happiness.

—

_ding!_

the elevator doors open just as cheryl finishes tying her hair up into a ponytail, and of course, as soon as they open, a flood of people exit-

and toni is left standing at the back of it, a wide grin instantly lighting up her face at the sight of cheryl walking in.

“good evening!” she says with a chuckle, watching with amusement as cheryl struggles to get the last turn of the band over her thick hair with a whine.

“evening, doctor topaz!” cheryl says cheerily. the second the doors shut and they begin ascending, she hears toni’s footsteps behind her before a finger curls into her ponytail, causing a shiver to curl up her spine.

“mmm, have i ever told you how much i love your hair?” toni murmurs, leaning in to press a kiss to the space just beneath cheryl’s ear as the redhead keens and leans into her touch with a shaky exhale.

“no, but i could’ve deduced it from how often you pull on it when it’s between your legs.” cheryl teases back, grinning when toni whines and presses her forehead against cheryl’s shoulder, her hand gripping cheryl’s waist.

“cheeky. i like when you call me doctor topaz, too.” toni smirks, tugging a little on her hair just as the elevator stops on the floor cheryl needs to get off on.

“play your cards right and i might call you doctor topaz while we’re fucking.” cheryl says quickly before she’s rushing out of the doors as soon as they open, laughing when toni whines again loudly behind her.

“you’re mean, doctor blossom! very mean!” she calls out, and cheryl simply throws a wink her way before she’s making her way towards the interns locker room.

she gets dressed quickly, knows she’s working the emergency room today, which is always chaos, and she needs to be on her A game. if she screws up even a little bit, someone could die, and doctor chipping has been on a warpath since it was discovered there was no one truly at fault for the woman’s allergic reaction to morphine the other week. doctor chipping had demanded betty be punished for it, but chief jones had determined that betty wasn’t at fault, that the woman’s allergy to morphine was unknown even to herself and therefore there was no possible way for betty to ascertain that knowledge.

the shit thing was, once was betty was cleared, doctor chipping’s attention had turned to cheryl, his anger directed towards her lack of grabbing betty, who was the woman’s doctor, and trying to make herself look like the hero instead of getting another doctor to help her. when cheryl had counter argued that she knew the woman was having an allergic reaction and knew what to do to save her life and therefore didn’t need another doctor present and that all she was trying to do was save the fucking woman, chief jones had officially closed the case that doctor chipping refused to. the woman wasn’t even pressing charges, so there was no reason for his insistence.

since then, doctor chipping has been watching every single intern like a fucking hawk and it’s frustrating, especially when cheryl’s trying to have moments with toni. she just wants to be able to look over her shoulder without worrying if his stupid face will be watching her with apprehension and caution.

she has no idea what his problem is, but she's continuously reminding herself that it'll all be over when she takes her residency exam in a few months time.

the first few hours of her shift go by quite nicely, no doctor chipping around to give her shit or harass her and only a few people being brought in with simple injuries, but a car crash throws her for six when two people are brought in with severe injuries. she keeps her cool and pages the higher ups on call and pages toni when a child comes in with mild injuries, smiling when the pink haired doctor shows up and manages to make the kid smile despite the pain she’s in.

it’s later on when she’s taking a five minute bathroom break and exiting the stall when she finally gets another moment alone with her favorite girl, and toni walks into the bathroom with a wide grin and rushes over to cheryl just as she finishes washing her hands.

“hey, what-.”

toni silences her with a bruising kiss, pushing her up against the wall as cheryl whines in protest, unable to really grip toni at all with her hands sopping wet.

“t-toni, what-.”

“on call room on level four in an hour?” toni breathes against her lips, sucking gently on her bottom one and making cheryl’s head spin as she groans and nods furiously against her.

“god, _yes,_ but-.”

“no ‘buts’. see you there.” toni says with a grin, and before cheryl can say anything else, she’s rushing out of the bathroom, leaving cheryl a flustered mess as she sighs shakily and grabs a paper towel to wipe her hands with.

she’s supposed to stay in the emergency room, but…well, she supposes if she keeps her pager on loud it’ll be okay…

cheryl makes up her mind as soon as that thought enters it, grinning as she leaves the bathroom in a hurry, desperate to check on all her patients before her time becomes occupied with toni. 

—

“so what’s up your ass again?” reggie asks, downing a shot of tequila and raising an eyebrow at veronica as she rolls her eyes and takes her fourth shot of the night.

“nothing’s up my ass!” she groans, rubbing at her temples as reggie suddenly cocks an eyebrow with a wide smirk.

“hey, something could be up your ass…” he murmurs, running a hand up her thigh as veronica’s eye widen before she’s slapping his hand away with a growl.

“you’re a fucking ass and you’re gross as fuck, shut up! god, can’t you just get drunk with me and like, not talk?” she hisses, downing another shot and watching as reggie rolls his eyes and pokes her arm.

"hey, if you hate my company so much, why didn't you just text cheryl or betty to get drunk with you?" he asks, and veronica sighs.

"cheryl's working and betty is...busy." she grumbles. reggie nods once before he grins.

"hey, if she's not busy later, she can join us. always wanted a threesome with you two." he jokes, but veronica doesn't find it very funny, slaps his arm harshly with a glare.

"again, you're a dick!"

“come on, ronnie, i’m just kidding around! seriously though, what’s going on with you?” he asks with genuine concern. veronica hesitates before she shakes her head.

“why do you care?” she grumbles. reggie sighs.

“contrary to popular belief, i’m not a complete dick, veronica.”

“ha, that’s news to me.” she says with a grin. reggie rolls his eyes again and grabs another shot, downing it and motioning to the bartender to pour them some more.

“fine, you wanna drown your sorrows and not tell me why? go for it, i’ll sit here and shut up and get drunk with you.” he deadpans, looking at veronica sternly and watching as she lets out a loud sigh.

“i like someone and someone i care about likes them, too, a lot, so i can’t do anything about it.” she says firmly, watching as reggie cocks an eyebrow before his mouth splits in a wide grin.

“you talking about me? hell, ronnie, you know i’d be choosing you without hesitation, you’ve gotta be the hottest piece of ass i’ve ever had.” veronica’s glare is enough to probably kill him as she kicks him firmly in the ankle with her high heeled toe.

“ow!”

“seriously, if you weren’t hot, i wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole, and sometimes you make me question why the fuck i even bother with you.” she says angrily, pushing herself up off the barstool she’s sitting on, and she stumbles right into reggie’s arms, the boy gripping her tightly with a heavy sigh before, to her surprise, he rubs her back soothingly.

“i’m just fucking around, stop being so damn sensitive, veronica! look…” reggie helps her back onto the bar stool and looks at her with sad eyes, a lopsided smile lifting his face.

“i don’t really know how to help you with that one, because i don’t really have any friends, and like you constantly remind me, i’m a dick. i’d probably say fuck my friend and get with the person i like, fuck ‘em. but you’re not like that. you’re a good person, and, well…i don’t know, i think good people tend to steer clear when their friend likes someone.”

veronica blinks back tears and sniffs, grabbing the first shot the bartender puts down in front of her and downing it with a wince before she nods.

“even the dick says i should stay away. ugh, you’re right…”

“i am. doesn’t mean you have to like it.” reggie says with a laugh.

“i don’t like it!” veronica whines, burying her face into her elbow and peeking up at reggie with a sad smile as he rubs her back once more.

"look, it's nothing to be sad about. people come and go in our lives, you'll find someone else to turn your attention to. let your friend have this one." he says firmly. veronica rolls her eyes, unable to stop herself.   
  


"you're just saying that so Iidon't end up dating someone else so you can fuck me whenever you want." she says matter-of-factly. reggie once again shrugs.

"maybe...i'm just saying, there's no use crying about it. and if you ever wanna get over your sadness, you know who to come to.” he says somewhat softly, but there’s still that tone in his voice that tells veronica he wants nothing more than to take her to the back where the bathrooms are and fuck her against the wall.

sex is always on his mind, it seems.

_…eh, fuck it._

“bathroom?” veronica says simply, and reggie’s jumping off his bar stool within seconds.

—

betty feels like she’s on cloud fucking nine.

she’s almost floating on air as archie rubs the back of her hand with his thumb, fingers intertwined as he talks about his time in medical school while they walk down the sidewalk that leads up to betty’s apartment with veronica and cheryl.

betty hasn’t stopped smiling since seven this evening when the date started. archie has been the perfect gentlemen, had taken her to a restaurant and paid for the meal as they talked all night about each other to each other, sharing laughs and jokes and it's just been so insanely _easy,_ it's nothing that betty's ever experienced before. she feels like this is the kind of date people talk about in fairy tales. to get along with someone so easily, for the conversation to just flow, for everything to just be so _perfect..._

“…and it was good, as much as i wish my father had been around, it’s like i could feel him there with me throughout the whole course, cheering me on.” archie says with a slightly nervous chuckle, ruffling the back of his hair with his free hand as betty smiles up at his with an understanding nod.

“yeah, i can understand that. i didn’t have the best relationship with my father when he was alive, but i could feel his presence. sometimes…sometimes i feel like i still can.” betty says truthfully, and archie turns to look at her in surprise. 

“your father passed away?”

“when i was like, ten. he…wasn’t the greatest dad. wasn’t the worst, either. just yelled a lot, was always pushing me and my sister, polly, to be better and do better. my mom divorced him when i was six and polly was eight, and he died a few years after that.” betty murmurs, nodding once as archie squeezes her hand and pulls her to a stop before he tucks a finger under her chin to lift her gaze.

"I'm sorry about your father." he whispers.

"don't be. it was a long time ago. i'm sorry about your father too, though." she whispers back. archie smiles softly.

"it was a long time ago." he reiterates. betty feels her heart racing as she looks up at archie with a sad smile, and he licks his lips before he shakes his head suddenly.

“man, i don’t even know why i’m so nervous, it’s just…i don’t wanna mess this up, you know?” archie says softly, chuckling as betty smiles and ducks her head shyly.

“i know, i’ve been panicking all day, but…i’ve had such an amazing night, archie. this has to be one of the best dates i’ve ever been on.” she says genuinely, looking up at the boy and smiling as his cheeks turn red and the smile on his face lights up the entire damn street.

“really?” he asks excitedly. betty laughs and nods, steps closer to him, and archie lets out a shaky breath before he’s cupping betty’s cheek and leaning down. their lips crash together gently, tentative at first, and the fire that fucking spreads through betty’s entire body has her gasping before she’s deepening the kiss and gripping archie’s shirt to pull him closer.

it’s this spark, this connection that betty’s never felt before, and when archie pulls away, he’s looking at her like he’s seeing her for the first damn time.

“betty, i…i really don’t want our date to end with me leaving you at your doorstep.” he breathes, eyes filled with lust and excitement that has betty’s heart racing as she contemplates what she’s about to do.

what if veronica’s still home? she said she was going to go to the bar but what if she decided not to? and what if…what if they do this and it doesn’t work and-

_betty cooper, live a little and invite this tall glass of gorgeous man up to your room!_

veronica’s voice is loud in her head, and for once in her life, betty finds herself listening to it. veronica is impulsive and brash, but maybe just this once...she's right. 

“then let’s not let it end here. come upstairs?” betty whispers back.

and the way archie smiles leaves betty’s heart pounding.

—

“ _god, toni-.”_

cheryl’s toes curl, back arching with a whine as toni claps a hand over her mouth with a giggle against her ear.

“shush, the on call rooms aren’t sound proof, babe.” toni breathes, returning her lips to cheryl’s neck and sucking harshly on her pulse point as her free hand fiddles with the lace of cheryl’s underwear.

“stop making me feel so fucking good then, _fuck…”_ cheryl whimpers, trying her best to catch her breath when toni pulls back with a pop and looks up at her with a shrug.

“okay, if that’s what you want-.” she starts, pulling herself up before cheryl hooks a leg around her waist and pulls her back down.

“noooo…” she whines, pouting as toni laughs and kisses her lips softly.

“how are you so fucking hot and so fucking cute at the same time, huh?” toni whispers against her lips, kissing every inch of her skin she can reach while cheryl smiles and shrugs.

“mmm, no idea. did you lock the door by the way?” cheryl asks with a frown that’s quickly erased when toni tickles her sides and she yelps before she can stop herself.

“yeah, yeah, now shush, i wanna see how many times i can make your muscles twitch.” toni teases, tucking her fingers underneath the lace of cheryl's underwear. cheryl glares at her and nips at her bottom lip playfully.

“you’re the devil, toni topaz.”

“it’s doctor topaz to you.”

—

reggie’s lips on her neck feel like fire in her drunken haze, and veronica has no idea what fucking planet she’s even on anymore, but for some stupid fucking reason, all she can think about is archie’s wide smile, and all she can think about is how archie is on a date with betty right now and-

“harder, fuck, please reggie-.” veronica gasps out, bucking her hips against him as he curls his hands under her thighs and lifts them, pinning her against the wall.

“you’re sure no one’s gonna find us?” reggie murmurs in her ear, letting her go to unbutton her jeans and tug them down off her body as veronica shakes her head and pulls him back up to her lips as soon as he’s done.

“this toilet’s been busted for weeks, which is kinda fucked up considering it’s the disabled bathroom, b-but it doesn’t matter. now _fuck_ me.” she growls, ignoring the way reggie grins widely as he unbuttons his own jeans and pulls them down.

—

betty’s whole body is vibrating with an energy she can’t explain, trembling and shaking, and the way archie is so damn soft with her, the way his fingers skate over her stomach as his lips kiss down her chest…

fuck she’s on fucking fire with every inch of archie’s body that touches her. betty’s never felt like this before in her entire life. she arches into his touch, giggling when archie nips at the top of her breast before he’s sliding a hand underneath her back to fiddle with the clasp of her bra.

“betty…are you sure you wanna do this?” he asks softly, looking up at her imploringly, and betty can’t help but soften at the look of concern on his face. she nods without hesitation, cupping his face with her hands and pulling him into her with a soft kiss.

“i…i know it’s the first date, but we’ve known each other for so long now, arch…and i want this, i really want this-.”

“i know. i do, too. but i just wanna make sure you do, too.” archie whispers, smiling as he kisses her again. betty feels her heart ache.

she really found one of the good ones…it seems almost impossible that archie andrews exist in all honesty.

“i do want this. please, archie.” betty breathes, and with no further hesitation, archie unclasps her bra and gently begins to pull it off her body.

—

veronica feels like she’s about to vomit.

she’s not exactly sure if it’s because of what she’s just done or if it’s because of the colossal amounts of alcohol she’s consumed in the last four hours, but regardless, she finds herself swallowing down bile as reggie buttons his jeans back up with beads of sweat building on his forehead.

“you sure you don’t wanna go for round two?” he says with a grin, and the very thought has veronica sinking against the wall as she adjusts her top and tries her best not to cry.

“reggie…”

“we can do round two at my place, though, not here, that was difficult enough as it is, my arms are killing me.” reggie says with a wince and a laugh as he massages his biceps, and veronica can’t stop the tear that escapes as she licks her lips and shakes her head.

“no…no going back to your place, no round two, no…no more of this.” veronica croaks out, wiping away her tears and adjusting herself properly as she pushes herself up off the wall and leaves the cubicle they’re in.

“what? ronnie, what the hell are you talking about?” reggie demands, stepping out of the cubicle and fixing his belt as he stares at veronica in the mirror in confusion. veronica grips the sink, her mind still on one thing and one thing only: archie.

she can’t do this…

“this was the last time. i can’t…i can’t do this anymore, reggie.” veronica says softly, looking up at him apologetically as he pauses and runs his fingers through his sweat matted hair.

“seriously? i…look if it’s about this person you like-.” he starts, but veronica cuts him off with a shake of her head.

“no, reggie, i’m saying this because i want to. this won’t happen again. it can’t happen again, it’s not fair to you or me, so…please, just don’t answer any of my calls, don’t buy into my bullshit. even you deserve better.” veronica pleads, that sick feeling in her stomach building even more, god she really is about to throw up-

“fine.” reggie growls, and before veronica can say anything, reggie exits, the bathroom door slamming shut behind him while veronica feels that bile rise more and more.

she thought reggie could get rid of those thoughts, but she’s still thinking about archie and betty…about the idea of them on a date, of them being something more, developing into a power couple while she just watches them flourish with nothing but jealousy and anger, god…

she’s a terrible friend. she’s a terrible fucking friend.

veronica ends up throwing up into the sink with tears falling down her face as she does.

—

“so…that was kind of amazing.”

archie grins as betty giggles and begins playing with his fingers, the both of them covered in a sheen of sweat, but feeling on top of the damn world as archie leans down to kiss her temple tenderly.

“it was…i’ve never felt this kind of connection with someone before, archie.” betty whispers, looking up at him fondly and to her surprise, archie purses his lips and nods as he shimmies closer to her until they're both on their sides facing each other.

“neither have i. hell, i was so nervous for this date and it ended up being one of the best i’ve ever had.” he croaks out hoarsely, his fingers trailing up and down betty’s bare spine as she smiles and kisses the corner of his mouth.

“me too.” archie smiles at that, and it’s quiet for a few moments before archie swallows thickly and looks up at her somewhat nervously.

“betty, i know this is only the first date, but we’ve known each other for a long time, and…i’m not interested in anyone else but you.” archie tells her, and betty can’t help but grin up at him with a teasing nudge of his shoulder.

“so that crush on cheryl is finally gone now, huh?” she smirks. archie laughs softly.

“ages ago. i have a less than zero chance with her, and…she’s an amazing person, but an even better friend. my crush on her was ruining things between us, so, yeah. definitely gone. i’ve only got eyes on you.” he says, leaning down to press a kiss to her bare shoulder.

god, betty feels like she could fly right now.

“that’s really sweet, arch…” she says almost in awe, unable to fathom how nice archie’s being, this side of him she knew existed but didn’t know so intimately like this before.

“it’s true. i really like you, betty.” he says with a smile. betty shuffles closer to him, her body sparking with that fire it felt earlier in the night already despite how tired she is.

“i really like you, too.” she breathes. archie grins, and he kisses her before he tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and looks into her eyes.

“do you wanna…i don’t know, maybe go steady with me? i mean, not exactly boyfriend/girlfriend, but…not seeing anyone else? i’d like to have some more dates before we take that step.” he says with a chuckle.

betty’s heart fucking _soars._

“i’d really like that.” she says giddily, unable to stop the gigantic smile spreading on her face. archie grins back before he’s kissing her, gently nudging her onto her back and moving on top of her as betty arches into her touch with a whine.

“you’re beautiful, betty cooper.” archie whispers into her ear, his lips attaching to the space beneath her ear, and betty’s quite sure she’s never fucking felt such happiness before as archie reaches for the box of condoms on the bedside table.

—

“you, cheryl blossom…are the most gorgeous woman in the world.” toni murmurs against her skin, lips kissing between her chest, up her collarbone and neck until she finally reaches her lips, and cheryl wraps her arms around toni’s shoulders and pulls her into her body with a content sigh.

“mmm, you make me feel like i am.” she says tiredly, eyes fluttering closed as she presses a kiss to toni’s hairline. toni’s fingers skate up and down her sides tenderly before she’s kissing cheryl’s jawline.

“good…because it’s what you deserve.” she murmurs. cheryl smiles and tuck a finger under her chin to lift her gaze, kissing her lips soundly as she does.

“and you? what do you deserve?” she whispers against them. toni grunts and pushes herself up until her hands are on either side of cheryl’s head and she’s hovering above her, staring down at her with nothing but awe.

“probably nothing, and maybe everything. i don’t know, just as long as i have you, i think i’ll be happy to get whatever i’m given in this life.” toni says with a smile.

cheryl’s heart feels like it’s about to fucking explode.

“you really mean that?” she says hoarsely. toni sighs and uses one hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear before she leans down and kisses cheryl as passionately as she possibly can.

“i…really care about you, cheryl.” toni whispers, kissing her again and whining when cheryl’s nails dig into her back and scratch down wantonly.

“i really care about you too, toni.” cheryl says truthfully, looking up into those brown eyes and deciding then and there that she’s never, ever felt like this about anyone before in her entire life…

“i wanna take you out on a date again. when we both have a night off, yeah? we’ll go to the best restaurant in town…get the most expensive wine and the most expensive lobster and then we’ll go back to mine and spend all night rolling between the sheets, where we don’t have to worry about not being loud or sneaking around.” toni says firmly, grinning when cheryl laughs and cups her cheek before leaning up to kiss her silly again.

“it sounds magical.”

“you’re magical.”

“you’re corny.” cheryl teases.

“you love it-.”

neither one of them hear the sound of the doorknob turning until the door opens quickly and widely, and cheryl feels toni’s body jump in her hands as she lifts the blankets and pulls it over the both of them with a speed cheryl’s never seen before in her life-

“oh, god! i…” josie mccoy stands at the doorway with her hand over her eyes before she’s looking at the scene before her with nothing but shock, eyes wide and mouth dropped open while cheryl feels her heart fall straight down her body and into the ground floor of the hospital.

“josie…josie, wait-.” cheryl scrambles to grab her scrubs off the ground while trying to keep the blanket covering herself, and josie looks at her with nothing but anger blazing in her eyes before she’s clenching her jaw and stepping back out of the room.

“i have to go-.”

“josie!” the door slams shut before cheryl can even jump out of the bed, still stark naked, and cheryl feels tears of panic well in her eyes as she turns to face toni, who looks up at her with a sheepish smile, but the same panic shining in her own eyes.

“…i guess i didn’t lock the door.”


	6. didn't know people could name their kid 'doctor'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi. no excuses tbh. I lost motivation. a lot's happened since the last chapter, personally and globally. everything sucks right now, but somehow I picked up some kind of motivation to come back to this. who knows where it came from lol. I guess I'm back maybe kinda don't take my word for it, cause this motivation might disappear again. but regardless, I'm sure you'll all be happy to see this updating, so I'm glad I could give you a modicum of happiness while we deal with a shit ton of heartbreak that seems to relentlessly be coming this year. love you guys, hit me up on twitter at @endofdaysforme or leave a comment letting me know what you think.

“josie! josie, wait!”

cheryl practically races down the hallway the second she spots that familiar head of hair, and she sees josie mccoy turn to face her with a roll of her eyes before she’s scoffing and walking away from her as quickly as if someone’s lit a fire at her feet.

“josie, please-.”

“i’m busy, cheryl!” josie calls out with a slight hiss, her finger slamming down onto the elevator button as cheryl pushes her legs harder to catch up to her before those damn elevator doors close.

it’s been four days now since josie caught her and toni in the on-call room, and every single time cheryl’s tried to get josie alone to give her an explanation, the girl runs and disappears before cheryl can stop her.

cheryl’s fucking terrified. she hasn’t been approached by the chief yet, but it’s only a matter of time, isn’t it? she needs to try to convince josie not to say anything to the higher ups or else she and toni are screwed. they’d be fired, and god, all the hard work they’ve put into their careers would be over-

“son of a bitch…” josie grumbles as cheryl manages to squeeze between the doors of the elevator before they close behind her. cheryl pants breathlessly and looks up at josie desperately, but josie looks around the entire empty elevator, avoiding eye contact completely.

“josie…i know you’re confused about what you saw-.”

“confused? i don’t think so, it’s pretty obvious what you’re doing here, cheryl!” josie hisses, glaring at her briefly before she’s looking away from her again.

“no, josie, me and toni, we were just-.”

“sleeping with each other? what, is this the part where you tell me it was a one time thing?” josie scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest. cheryl shakes her head and sighs.

“no, it’s-.”

“look, i don’t wanna hear it, cheryl, i got a lot of cases to take care of today, so if you’ll excuse me…” josie pushes past her just as the elevator doors open, and cheryl watches her walk away with her mouth dropped open in shock.

she’s not even giving her a chance to get a goddamn word in…

the elevator doors have closed and gone up a level with cheryl still staring at the doors like she’s just been slapped in the face, and when they open again, of course it’s toni that’s standing there, looking at her with surprise.

“hey…” she says softly, making her way inside and quickly hitting the level ten button while cheryl huffs and hits the button to close the doors.

“josie just walked away from me without giving me a _second_ to even explain to her what happened!” cheryl growls, glaring at toni, who simply sighs and runs her fingers through her hair with a shrug.

“in her eyes, it’s already explained. she saw us sleeping together, cheryl, what else is there to explain?” she says firmly, looking to the redhead, whose eyes widen before she splutters and shakes her head.

  
“i-we…what if she tells the chief, toni!?” cheryl squeaks, wringing her hands nervously at even the mere thought of the chief finding out that she and toni have been secretly hooking up. if he finds out, they’ll both be fired, and god only knows what will happen to toni’s career, to _her_ career…

“i’m nervous, toni. what if she says something-.” cheryl starts anxiously, but toni rushes forward and grips her hands before she’s suddenly holding them up to her lips and pressing a kiss to her knuckles with a small smile.

“then we tell the chief before she does! i’ll talk to the chief, i’ll tell him what’s going on, if we’re upfront and honest with him maybe it won’t be so bad!” toni says quickly, looking to cheryl as if she’s expecting her to say that’s the best idea she’s ever had.

instead: 

“are you crazy?! no, we can’t tell the chief, we’ll both be fired and-.”

“and this is why we shouldn’t have done this…” toni says with a sigh, stepping back from her and shaking her head as cheryl chews on her bottom lip and stares at her.

“no one was supposed to find out, toni.” she whispers, fiddling with her fingers while toni simply licks her lips and looks at her sadly.

“but someone did. which begs the question…do you want to keep doing this?” toni asks firmly.

cheryl hesitates.

she wants to, of course she wants to, but god…if josie says something…if someone else finds out, what happens then? they’ve already screwed up here, the idea of them continuing when josie’s already found out…

“cher…do you want to keep doing this?” toni reiterates, her eyes wide with surprise now while cheryl continues chewing on the inside of her cheek like a nervous tick.

“i…toni, i…” she has no idea what to say, how to explain her hesitation, but she doesn’t get the chance to.

because the elevator doors open and toni exchanges one last sad glance with her before she’s walking away with a sigh, leaving cheryl inside the elevator watching her go with nothing but heartbreak.

  
“fuck…”

—

“ronnie…”

reggie’s voice is surprisingly soft as he looks at the girl who currently harbors his affections with a pleading expression, watching her as she grabs her stethoscope and loops it over her neck without even looking at him.

“come on, ronnie, can you just look at me?” reggie asks with a sigh, a fleeting feeling of hope flooding him when veronica finally sighs and looks up at him with a sad smile.

“i don’t know what else you want from me, reggie. i told you that i didn’t want to do what we’ve been doing anymore, and you flipped out on me and ignored me for three days straight.”

“can you blame me?! you just…out of nowhere, you just decided we can’t have casual sex anymore, without even asking me if that’s what i want, too-.”

“does it matter, reggie?! god, if one person doesn’t want it, i think that’s enough to call it quits, isn’t it? unless you’re into that non-consensual stuff, in which case, stay the fuck away from me!” veronica hisses, slamming her locker shut, but she’s barely able to get a step in before reggie’s gripping her wrist with a loud cry.

“jesus, where did you come up with that concept!? of course not, it’s just, god, it came out of fucking nowhere, veronica, and i thought…i thought we were having fun.” reggie says with a pout, looking at her as if she’s kicked his goddamn puppy, and veronica rolls her eyes and yanks her arm out of reggie’s grip and simply walks away, not willing to put up with his crap as she rounds the corner and-

“v, hey!” betty says with a wide grin, gripping her best friend’s shoulders before she’s hugging her tightly, and veronica ignores the pang in her heart and returns the hug before betty pulls away and looks at her with a smile.

“i have so much to tell you! you’ve been so busy the last couple of days, i haven’t had a chance to tell you about my date with archie!” betty says with a pout, and veronica winces and simply nods repeatedly.

“uh, yeah, i…sorry, i’ve had a lot of shifts lately.” veronica murmurs, making her way to the exit of the interns locker room and rolling her eyes when she hears betty following behind her.

“that’s okay, i can give you the run down now!”

“uh, sure…how was your date with archie?” veronica grumbles, turning back to look at her and watching as betty practically _beams_ with joy.

“oh, ronnie…it was amazing! we talked all night about _everything,_ he told me about his life and i told him about mine, and then we went back to our place, and, well…”

veronica stops short.

“what?” she breathes, looking to betty in complete and utter shock as the blonde’s cheeks turn red and the most gigantic grin appears on her face.

“oh come on, you know, i don’t have to tell you…” she giggles, chewing on her bottom lip and watching veronica, who tries her best to smile and ignore the fucking way her stomach begins turning the second she even thinks about what betty is alluding to.

they had sex…they actually had sex, on the first date?

“really, betty? on the first date?” veronica finds herself saying with a scoff, but if she wants betty to take offense to it as some kind of payback, the girl simply shrugs with a grin.

“when you know, you know! it felt right to do it, so i did, and god, am i glad i did! veronica, he’s…wow. just, _wow._ he’s the best i’ve ever had, the way he-.”

“okay, cool, i’m really happy for you, betty! i…i gotta go.” veronica says quickly, and she’s rushing away down the hallway before betty can call her back, the blonde watching her best friend go with a frown of confusion and worry.

—

cheryl’s a goddamn woman on a mission. she’s been searching for toni and josie all damn day in between checking on her patients, desperate to talk to the both of them, but it’s like trying to find a fucking needle in a haystack at this point.

“cheryl!?” she stops short at the sound of her name and spins around to see betty running towards her, a frown on her face, and cheryl sighs before she stops short and smiles at her cousin with a nod.

“hey, betty, sorry, i’m just looking for-.” she starts, but betty suddenly huffs as she comes to a stop in front of her and crosses her arms over her chest.

“yeah, everyone seems to be too busy!” she says angrily, shaking her head, and cheryl blinks once in surprise and looks at her in shock.

“wait, what do you mean?” she asks in confusion. betty sighs and shrugs.

“veronica’s been avoiding me, and so have you! did…did i do something?” she asks, that frown of worry returning suddenly and making cheryl feel incredibly guilty as she sighs and grips betty’s shoulder, giving it a gentle and reassuring squeeze.

“no, i…i’m sorry, cousin betty. what’s going on?” she asks softly, stepping in a little closer. she knows she’s been a little self involved lately, and to be honest, she’s still keeping an eye out for toni and josie because she can’t help herself, but she should try and give betty some of her attention at least and she knows that. she watches as betty chews on the inside of her cheek before she sighs.

“i just want to talk to someone about my date with archie, but veronica runs away from me every time i try and you…well, i don’t know what’s going on with you-.”

“josie caught me and toni.” cheryl blurts out, unable to stop herself and watching as betty’s eyes widen before she’s suddenly letting out a shaky breath.

“…shit.” she whispers.

“yup.” cheryl says simply. betty runs her fingers through her hair and looks up at her with worry.

“shit, shit, shit! oh god! has she said anything to the chief?” she asks quickly, glancing around and lowering her voice so no one can hear them.

“not yet, but-.” cheryl starts, but she trails off when she looks up and sees a flash of pink hair down the hallway.

“toni…” she breathes, eyes wide as she watches her favorite doctor walk down the hallway and turn left with a look of sadness on her face.

“go! go, we’ll talk later!” betty says hurriedly, pushing cheryl forward, and the redhead looks at her with a grateful smile.

“thank you! toni, wait!” she screams, rushing off down the hallway and barely managing to reach the pink haired woman as she stops and turns to look at cheryl in surprise.

surprise that quickly turns into what looks like exasperation.

“cheryl, not now.” she says firmly, already walking away again, but cheryl grabs her hand to stop her.

“toni, please, can we just-.”

“cheryl! not now!” toni hisses, walking away from her and further down the hallway, and cheryl’s about to retort angrily when she looks down the hallway and notices that toni’s making her way towards the chief of surgery.

cheryl’s heart drops.

doctor jones looks worried, his eyes wide as he paces back and forth and runs his fingers through his hair, and cheryl follows after toni, unable to stop herself, her mind racing and her heart pounding over why the chief could possibly be looking so harrowed-

_he knows, he knows, oh fuck, he knows-_

toni comes to a stop in front of the chief, and cheryl stays back, hanging out nearby, desperate to hear what’s going on-

“chief jones, i came as soon as you paged me-.”

“thank you…the others are on their way now, i know there’s not much you can do considering he’s not a peds patient-.”

“i’ll do what i can, help however i can, okay?” toni says softly. cheryl feels nothing but confusion, and she watches and chief jones swallows thickly before he suddenly makes eye contact with cheryl. his eyes widen before he’s nodding at her suddenly.

“doctor blossom…the other interns are being paged, please stay here.” he says simply, and toni turns to look at cheryl with a frown as she stops short and looks at the chief in surprise.

“i…okay, i’ll stay right here, chief.” he nods at her before he’s making his way down the hallway suddenly, reaching for his phone in his pocket, and cheryl looks at toni in shock.

“what’s going on?” she whispers. toni runs her fingers through her hair before she suddenly grips cheryl’s elbow and leads her across the room towards one of the on-call rooms. cheryl enters, feeling a little apprehensive to do so considering what always ends up happening when they come into this room, but toni surprises her by closing the door and looking at her with a sad look in her eyes.

“chief jones’s son is sick. he’s just been admitted in, he collapsed at home.” toni says firmly. cheryl feels her heart clench.

chief jones’s son?

“oh my god…what is he sick with?” cheryl asks softly.

“you’ll find out along with the rest of the interns, as for right now…cheryl, i need you to put all personal matters aside. whatever’s going on between us, and with josie, just forget it for now, please? chief jones needs us, this is son.” toni says, looking up at cheryl with a raised eyebrow, and at first, cheryl feels anger flood her, because how dare she think that toni wouldn’t think of her patients first?

“i…yeah, of course, you don’t need to tell me, toni, my patients always come first.” cheryl says slightly stiffly, but looking at the sadness in toni’s eyes over the whole situation, cheryl feels her anger quickly dissipate.

“i know…i know, i just-.”

“it’s fine.” cheryl says simply, gripping toni’s hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

they leave the on-call room, the both of them looking up just as the other interns walk up to them, and betty looks at cheryl with wide eyes, but she simply shakes her head as toni looks to all of the interns before her with a stern look just as doctor chipping comes to a stop beside both her and cheryl, looking at the interns before him.

“alright, you’ve all been paged here for a reason, i need you all to be at your goddamn best. this patient you’re about to see is chief jones’s son, he’s top priority. i don’t want any bullshit, no fighting to be his doctor, no kissing ass, no volunteering to watch over him, just shut up, observe, and listen to what chief jones wants you to do. understood?” he says firmly. everyone nods quickly, and cheryl steps into line with the other interns as they walk into the room opposite them with doctor chipping, toni, and to cheryl’s surprise, doctor lopez, the head of cardio.

the second they walk in, cheryl’s eyes land on a young man who only looks to be a few years younger than they are, a beanie on top of his head covering a haphazard mess of black hair and his blue eyes shining as he grins up at his father. chief jones looks down at his son with haunted eyes, but he smiles as adjusts the nasal pipes over his head and into his nostrils to help him breathe.

“so these are you soldiers, huh?” the man says, grinning at the doctors who walk in as chief jones rolls his eyes and looks up at them with a smile.

“yeah, jug, these are my soldiers. now shush, we gotta present your case to-.”

“the newbies. no worries, i got this.” the man says, suddenly sitting up straight and clearing his throat as he looks up at doctors before him with an even wider grin.

“forsythe pendleton jones the third, but you can call me ‘jughead’. twenty five years of age, diagnosed at the age of nine with severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, aka…my heart muscle is abnormally thick, which means my heart’s gotta work double time to get blood to the rest of my body, and, well…that’s not good. i’ve had two heart attacks at my young age, one at nineteen, one at twenty four, and my heart is slowly beginning to fail which means, i need a new one.” he manages to get out through shortened breaths that have cheryl looking at him in shock as she actually looks a little closer.

his skin has a slightly blue tinge, barely visible to the naked eye, and the bags under his eyes show his condition is clearly affecting his sleep. but cheryl watches as his eyes suddenly shift to beside her, where betty is standing, and she watches as his eyes widen and this gigantic grin spreads over his face before-

“i also am a leo, enjoy crime podcasts and investigative journalism, burgers and fries and all the bad foods i probably shouldn’t be eating with my condition.” he breathes, looking to betty especially as he says it, and cheryl raises an eyebrow and looks at her cousin to see her suddenly duck her head with a shy smile.

“boy, stop flirting with my doctors, not cool.” chief jones says with a sigh, shaking his head as jughead chuckles and looks back at betty with this look of awe that has even cheryl blushing slightly.

“can’t blame me, you’ve got some attractive doctors on your team, which is…shocking. shouldn’t you all be nerds with glasses that have no idea what social interaction is?” he teases, grinning at the lot of them as chief jones barks with laughter and grips his son’s shoulder with a fond grin.

“in that case, you should be a doctor, son.”

“eh, can’t go collapsing during surgery, i’d kill someone.” he says with a shrug, and the room immediately seems to grow tense, cheryl pursing her lips as chief jones’s grip on jughead’s shoulder tightens slightly. jughead sighs and adjusts his beanie before he looks up at his dad with a sad smile.

“ah come on, dad, gotta make jokes about it or else it’s just morbid. now…what’s the next step?”

“the next step is putting you on the transplant list. unos has already put you right at the top, considering who your father is-.” doctor lopez starts, but jughead suddenly frowns and shakes his head, looking up at his father with wide eyes.

“hey, whoa, i get that you’re a big shot around here, dad, but if there’s some other person out there that’s sicker than i am, they should be at the top, not me!” jughead argues, but the reality of the situation comes crashing down around all of them when chief jones clenches his jaw and shakes his head as he looks down at his son morosely.

“jug…you qualify for the top of the list.” he murmurs, eyes downcast and almost teary in a way cheryl has never seen before, and jughead seems to pale impossibly more as he licks his lips and simply nods once.

“right…guess that makes sense then. still, if there’s some other person out there who’s days away from dying, you give it to them. i’m tough, i can fight to stick around a little longer-.”

“forsythe-.”

“jughead.” he grunts, looking at doctor lopez as the woman chuckles and nods once.

“jughead, the truth of the matter is, your heart muscle is beginning to weaken with each passing day. you can fight as hard as you can, but strong will and determination can only get you so far. now, we’re gonna do everything we can to help you, and we’re gonna pray that we can get you a heart as soon as possible, but with the way things are now…” doctor lopez trails off, looking up at chief jones with worry, and the chief of surgery suddenly faces away from everyone with his hand still gripping jughead’s shoulder, his shoulders hunched in a clear show that he’s trying his best to hold back tears.

cheryl feels her heart break.

“how long?” jughead rasps out, not looking at his father as he reaches a hand up, iv needle clinging to the back of his palm to grip his father’s hand and squeeze it as tightly as he can.

“a month…maybe two.” doctor lopez whispers, ducking her head down sadly as she does. jughead lets out a shaky breath, and god, the atmopshere in the room is so somber, it breaks cheryl’s attempt to stay strong, tears beginning to form as she looks at toni to see her staring at her feet with this expression on her face cheryl can’t begin to read.

“right…guess we gotta pray someone croaks, right?” jughead says shakily.

“jug…” chief jones croaks out, shaking his head as jughead chuckles and sniffs once before squeezing his father’s hand once more.

“sorry…morbid humor. you know i hate the idea of transplants for exactly that reason, dad.”

“i know, son, and it’s a painful concept altogether, but if it helps you live…” chief jones says, sighing as he finally turns to look at his son with his eyes red and his bottom lip quivering. jughead closes his eyes and lets a stray tear escape before he nods slowly and smiles.

“yeah. guess so.”

—

“so, looks like i got lucky with you on my service.”

betty ducks her head and checks jughead’s iv with blushing cheeks and a racing heart, writing down the amount he’s getting before finally meeting his gaze. piercing blue eyes stare at her with this look that has her fighting back a giggle as she simply smiles and continues writing down dosage percentages in his chart.

“your father’s right, you shouldn’t flirt with your doctors.” she teases, and jughead barks with laughter as he adjusts his beanie and smirks.

“now how can i not when someone as beautiful as you is my doctor, miss…” he trails off, cocking an eyebrow, and betty chews on her bottom lip before she ducks her gaze back down to his chart and fights back a smile.

“doctor cooper.” she says simply. jughead sighs.

“didn’t know people could name their kid ‘doctor’.” he murmurs. betty rolls her eyes and simply shoots him a stern look before she closes his chart and places it into the foothold at the end of his bed.

“remember, the call button is right there beside you, and if you feel any pain-.”

“hit it and you come running, and i promise i won’t hit it just so i can see you again. this isn’t my first rodeo, miss doctor cooper.” jughead says with a grin. betty rolls her eyes again, but can’t help but smile as she goes to leave-

“hey.” jughead calls suddenly, pulling her attention back to him as she gets to the door.

“yes, mr. jones?” she says with a sigh, grinning as he clutches his heart and drops his mouth open with a mocked gasp.

“ow! that hurt worse than my two heart attacks! please, it’s jughead.”

“and where exactly did you obtain that nickname?” betty asks curiously, leaning against the doorframe with a cocked eyebrow and observing the boy before her with wonder as he simply grins and shrugs once.

“before my mom up and left and took my sister with her, we were pretty close. when we were kids, i used to balance a jug of water on my head to make her laugh, and she loved that little party trick. but she was only four and didn’t know proper english, so to her, the only words that stuck out from ‘i’m forsythe jones and here’s my party trick of juggling a jug of water on my head’ were the words ‘jug’ and ‘head’. and thus was born the nickname-.”

“jughead.” betty says with a smile, chuckling as his grin only widens.

“hey, there you go! said it in one go!” he cheers, clapping loudly and causing betty to laugh before she shakes her head and turns to leave the room and-

“hey!” archie comes to a stop in front of her with a frown, looking into the window of jughead’s room to see him watching betty leave with a wide grin as she comes to a stop in front of him with wide eyes.

“oh, hey!”

“you on jughead duty?” archie asks, his frown deepening when jughead’s smile fades at the sight of them both talking. betty simply purses her lips and nods once before she begins walking down the hallway with archie in tow.

“uh, yeah, just for today i think.” she murmurs, looking down at her pager as archie sighs loudly behind her.

“seems pretty into you.” he says firmly. betty rolls her eyes and spins on her heel to look at him sternly.

“he’s a patient, archie. and he’s a very sick one. it’s completely harmless, don’t go getting jealous on me.” she says simply. archie crosses his arms over his chest and cocks an eyebrow at her.

“i’m aware. why would you be telling me that though if you aren’t?” he says firmly. betty looks at him in confusion.

  
“what are you talking about?”

“he’s a patient, betty. it might be harmless flirting but it can’t be anything more than that-.”

“who said anything about it becoming more than that?! archie…where is this coming from?” betty exclaims, glancing around quickly to make sure her voice isn’t being raised too high to alert attention, and archie simply purses his lips before he shakes his head and ducks down to kiss her cheek.

“nothing, sorry, it’s just…i don’t know, it seemed like you liked him flirting with you.” he mumbles, pulling back and looking at her with a slight pout that has betty’s heart melting as she leans up and cups a hand around the back of his neck to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth with a smile.

“the only person i like flirting with me is you. now stop being so worried. even if i liked jughead like that, he’s a patient and i’m a doctor, it could never go there. i’ve only got eyes for you.” she teases. archie gives her a dopey grin, but nods slowly as betty’s pager suddenly goes off.

“crap, one of my other patients is coding, i gotta run!” betty says with wide eyes, and she’s tearing off down the corridor as archie frowns, but simply cheers her on.

“go save lives!”

—

“alright, looks like that heart rate of yours is picking back up, which is good! you’ll be out of here in no time, helena.” toni says with a grin, holding a hand up to allow the little six year old to slap her hand against hers while cheryl smiles and writes down helena’s heart rate into her chart.

“thank you so much, doctor topaz.” helena’s mother says with tear filled eyes, and the woman simply smiles and gives her a small pat on the back before she’s nodding to cheryl and the both of them are leaving the room. there’s an awkward tension thick in the air, one cheryl absolutely hates as she glances at toni to see her expression completely blank.

“so…chief jones’s son-.”

“we have to tell him, cheryl.” toni says with a sigh, finally stopping short in the hallway and turning to face her as cheryl blinks once in surprise and quickly shakes her head.

“no, toni…he’s got enough on his plate right now, his son is sick! adding the fact that one of his attendings is sleeping with an intern is just gonna put more pressure on him, should we really do that to the poor man when he’s already going through enough?” cheryl exclaims in a low whisper, stepping closer to her and watching as toni ducks her head and swallows thickly with apprehension.

“if we don’t tell him, cheryl…then josie will. it’s just gonna get worse, how do you think he’ll feel hearing it from the mouth of someone else?!” toni hisses under her breath, glancing quickly around before looking back up at cheryl expectantly. cheryl chews on the inside of her cheek before she makes a quick decision.

“i’ll…i’ll talk to josie, okay? i’ll convince her not to say anything, but toni…don’t tell him. not right now, not when he has a son who’s sick and a hospital to look after on top of that. we can handle this, we’re adults, we don’t need his supervision or-.”

“no, we just need his acceptance. cheryl, i…” toni trails off, and she glances around once again before she’s suddenly gripping cheryl’s hand and pulling her into the supply closet behind them, slamming the door shut behind her and quickly checking that no one is inside before she’s stepping into cheryl’s space and cupping her face in her hands delicately with the softest look cheryl’s ever seen grace her beautiful features.

“i wanna be with you. _really_ be with you. not sneaking around and having sex in the on-call room like we’re teenagers scared of getting caught. i wanna be able to hold your hand and kiss you and let everyone in this damn hospital know that you’re my girl. and we can’t do that without the chief knowing and accepting it.” she whispers, looking into cheryl’s eyes with such hope and adoration, cheryl feels like her heart is pounding so fast it’s about to fly out of her chest.

“i…toni, i want that too, more than anything, but what if it doesn’t go our way? what if he tells us we can’t be together or worse, fires us both? we both fought so hard to get here, we can’t just abandon our careers.” cheryl says hesitantly, and like the flame of a candle being blown out, the hope in toni’s eyes fades, is replaced with nothing but sadness as cheryl sighs and leans down to press a kiss to toni’s brow as tenderly as she can.

“i want to be with you. but i worked way too hard to get here. this is my dream, toni, working in this hospital, being a _doctor,_ i can’t throw that away-.”

“i know.” toni whispers, clutching her coat and scrunching the fabric between her fingers as cheryl simply holds her close and tries her best not to cry, tries her best just to cherish this moment she has with her…

“let me just talk to josie. please?” cheryl croaks out, pulling away to look down at her sadly, and toni simply licks her lips before she nods once.

“okay.” and with that, she heads to the door of the supply closet and leaves without another word, leaving cheryl watching her go with nothing but anguish.

—

“josie! josie, wait, please!” cheryl chases after her friend down the corridor, ignoring the stares and the very loud sigh of exasperation josie lets out as she approaches.

“cheryl, i’m not going over this again-hey!”

cheryl grips josie’s arm and drags her into the an empty on-call room, ignoring her protests as she slams the door shut behind them while josie glares at her angrily.

  
“what, you gonna sleep with me now to get ahead, too?! i’m flattered but i don’t swing that way-.”

“what? no, josie, for god’s sake-.” cheryl growls, crossing her arms and standing in front of the door to prevent josie from going anywhere.

she’s putting an end to this _now._

“is that what you think i’m doing?! sleeping with toni to make sure i get ahead?!” cheryl exclaims in shock, staring as josie huffs and rolls her eyes at her before looking her up and down.

“well, why the hell else would be sleeping with an attending?!” she barks, once again reaching for the door, but cheryl slaps her hand away with a glare.

“that’s _not_ what this is, josie-.”

“look, cheryl, i thought you were better than that, alright?! out of all the girls, you are the last person i thought would do something like this, but you know what? i don’t really care, so how about you get the hell out of my way!” josie hisses, this look of betrayal in her eyes that has cheryl’s heart aching as she swallows back tears and shakes her head.

“josie, it’s not like that at all, i…i really like toni, okay? i do, it’s just-.”

“like i said, _i don’t care._ you just better pray no one finds out.” josie says stiffly before she’s motioning for cheryl to move, and the redhead feels nothing but defeat grip her as she slowly moves away from the door and allows josie to grip the handle, but before she can leave, cheryl grips her arm and looks at her pleadingly.

“please don’t say anything to anyone, josie.” she whispers. josie’s eyes widen, and cheryl blinks in surprise when she scoffs angrily and pulls her arm out of her grip before she’s all but ripping the door open and leaving, and cheryl is frozen in shock, her heart racing and sweat building on her brow at the idea of josie telling somebody about this-

her career is over. toni’s career is over, they’re so fucking screwed-

“josie…” she steps out of the room and glances down the corridor for her, but josie is long gone, and instead, a flash of pink hair moves ahead of her and cheryl is tearing down the corridor after it, blinking back tears and trying her best not to whimper and sob as she grabs toni’s arm and drags her into the stairwell just as toni lets out a yelp of surprise and stumbles over her feet a little.

“jesus! cheryl-.”

“josie, sh-she-.”

“hey, hey! breathe, look at me!” toni grips her chin and tilts her head up, brushes away the tears that fall down her cheeks with gentle thumbs and a look of nothing but concern as cheryl blubbers and tries her best to do exactly that.

“she d-didn’t listen, she’s g-gonna say something-.” cheryl tries to get out, and toni’s eyes widen before she licks her lips and thinks it over, eyes slightly panicked-

“then we tell chief jones now. just us two, before she can-.” toni starts, but cheryl is already gripping her elbows and digging her nails slightly into them with panic.

“wh-what!? toni, we c-can’t-.” she gasps out.

“you just said josie is going to say something, we can’t let her be the one to tell him, cheryl!” toni exclaims, gripping cheryl back just as tightly before the redhead composes herself and shakes her head once more with a deep breath.

“sh-she…she didn’t say outright that she was gonna say something, i b-begged her not to and she just scoffed at me, and…” cheryl watches as toni’s expression softens before she lets out a sigh of relief and suddenly knocks her forehead against cheryl’s.

“god, cheryl…” she whispers, licking her lips and rubbing her hands up and down cheryl’s arms so comfortingly, the girl feels like collapsing into them. they’re still for a few moments before toni suddenly sighs and pulls back to look at cheryl sadly.

“it doesn’t matter. we still need to tell him-.” she starts, but cheryl immediately shakes her head furiously.

“no, we are _not_ doing that!” she hisses.

“cheryl, how long do you think we can keep hiding this?!” toni growls, anger immediately taking over as she looks at the redhead with nothing but frustration.

“as long as we have to! this is our _lives,_ toni-.”

“yeah, and clearly you don’t want me to be part of it as much as you think you do!” toni shouts, her voice reverberating in the stairwell and making them both look around in panic before they realize it’s two in the morning and the hospital is almost empty of workers.

“toni…” cheryl starts, taking a step forward, desperate to put together words in her mind that make sense, that will get her point across to toni that doing this…exposing their relationship is going to mean the end for the both of them.

“let me talk to him, cheryl. just…please?” toni whispers, pleads, eyes begging and hands gripping cheryl’s tightly in an attempt to persuade her, but all cheryl can think about…

god, all she can think about…

“i…” she hesitates, watches as toni looks at her with nothing but hope, but all cheryl can think about is what happens after.

what happens after they tell the chief that they’re together. what happens when he fires them both, when they leave this place thinking they can survive on their own before the bitter resentment grows and grows between them over costing each other their dream jobs until they fall into a pit of self hatred and anger for each other, until they grow apart and things end and they both begin to wonder whether it was even worth it in the first place…

“i _can’t._ ” she whispers, tears falling down her cheeks before she can stop them.

and toni’s shoulders deflate, utter misery heavy in her eyes as she purses her lips and nods once before looking at cheryl resolutely.

“then maybe…maybe we should just end this.” she says firmly, and cheryl can only let out a whimper of grief before toni’s pulling the door to the stairwell open and leaving before she can get a chance to say anything more.


End file.
